It’s seven o’clock on Sunday morning and I can hear the kids downstairs having a pillow fight. Before you get any sweet visions of children giggling as they gently pound each other with fluffy feather-filled pillows, this is not that kind of fight.
No, this is war. They are shrieking and screaming. I put my pillow over my head, but I can't drown out the noise. Good morning, it's time to go be mom.
The Church teaches we are not supposed to do any unnecessary work on Sundays; Is any of my work unnecessary? I guess this is a problem as old as Christianity itself. In the story of Christ healing Simon Peter's mother-in-law, it states, “He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them” Luke 4:39. Waited on them? The poor woman had been dying moments earlier. Such is the vocation of being a wife and mother.
Sundays at my house look something like this:
• Get up and make Sunday breakfast. (In all honesty, if my husband is not working he likes to do this, but guess who usually does the dishes.)
• Get the kids ready for church.
• Take care of squirmy, noisy kids at church. Try to hear something of the homily and receive Communion with someone pulling at my dress or climbing up me.
• Come home and surprise, everyone wants me to fix lunch.
• Clean up.
• Start making Sunday dinner.
• Clean up.
• Pack lunches for Monday.
• Clean up.
• Get everyone ready for school the next day and put them to bed.
• Clean up.
When I finally make my way downstairs to cuddle up on the couch, exhausted, my sweet husband will say something like, “Oh, I can't believe I have to work tomorrow. I wish it was still going to be Sunday.”
Huh? It would be easy to feel sorry for myself. However, when I look at the privilege I have been given to be the wife of this man, the mother of these children, I have to see things differently. While explaining that women can hold valuable positions outside the home, John Paul II the Great, reminds us, “The true advancement of women requires clear recognition be given to the value of their maternal and family role, with comparison to all other public roles and all other professions” (Familiaris Consortio). We are further told that, “The family is the first and vital cell of society.” It is a gift to be part of such a union.
Another look at the Church's images of women show us how important the work we do is and how precious we are. The first image is of the Church herself. The Church is represented as the Bride of Christ. This image shows us how important we are as human brides. We are spouses of the Lord and spouses of our husbands.
The second image is that of Mary. The mother of our Lord. The Queen of Heaven. The mother of us all. How significant a position it must be to be a mother. Christ could have willed Himself into human existence and yet, He allowed Himself the humble beginnings of being born to a woman. We should be honored that we too are called “mother.”
In John Paul II's Letter to Families he reminds us some of what we, as Christian wives and mothers, are called to do:
• We are to give ourselves completely and selflessly to our spouses.
• We are to have hearts that are open to life.
• We are to love and educate our children in the faith.
• We are to live our lives as examples to the world.
When I am able to remember these things and keep my focus, I realize that my children help me attain holiness. Perhaps, without their needs, I would be drawn towards the capital sin of sloth. Maybe, if they behaved perfectly at Mass, I would be guilty of pride. If my food was ever warm, I might fall into gluttony. The Lord knows my weaknesses. In His mercy, my kids are actually protecting me from myself!
While the work of being a parent can seem mundane at times, if we keep our hearts on the big picture, we will become further sanctified by each dish we wash, each nose we wipe and each meal we cook. “Yes, Honey, I wish tomorrow was Sunday again too.”
Mary Lou Rosien is a Catholic wife and mother to seven children. She is a frequent contributor to Catholic women's and family magazines. She writes in-between laundry, doing the dishes and driving her kids all over town in North Chili, NY.
