Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
What images do you have of Jesus? A Jewish man and carpenter? One who could fish, laugh with his friends and captivate a crowd with his words? A healer and good friend? The crucified and risen Lord with pierced hands and feet? The judge sitting at the right had of his father in heaven?
How about Jesus as a mother hen gathering her chicks beneath her wings? Probably not the first image to come to mind, but this tender, loving image of Jesus is presented to us in today’s gospel reading (Luke 13: 31-35) as Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (This passage also appears in Matthew 23:37-39).
I love this passage and image of Jesus. As a mother, I know how much I love my children and want to protect them and guide them on the right path. As they get older and are seeking more independence, sometimes they don’t want my guidance and protection. But I know when they really need me, they come running back and are comforted in knowing that my love is always there. So much more, I imagine, is Jesus’ love for us and desire to guide and protect us if we but let him, like a mother hen gathering her brood under her wings.
Julian of Norwich, late fourteenth century mystic, wrote of Jesus as our “true Mother in whom we are endlessly carried and out of whom we will never come.” How comforting to be as close to Jesus as a child to it’s mother.
In today’s first reading (Romans 8: 31b-39), Paul offers a hymn extolling the love of God made manifest in Christ Jesus. His letter to the Romans reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love God, “…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Wow. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
We can, however, choose to separate ourselves from God. Maybe it’s prideful stubbornness, or fear of intimacy with our Creator. Maybe it’s old hurts that we haven’t been willing to let go of. Or thinking that we can do it all on our own like a child seeking independence. Whatever it is, it can prevent us from experiencing that tender, healing love that God in Jesus has for us. Like a mother hen, Jesus wants to gather us under those loving, protective wings. Are you willing?
- Eileen Miller