“Life begets life;”[1] if
the religious is truly a mother, she should beget life since she has Life. She
must beget children. If she does not beget children, as the sterile fig tree of
the Gospel, she is useful only “to be thrown into the fire.”
The religious begets spiritual children by the cross,
prayer, apostolic zeal, and the proclamation of the Word of God.
We must always ask God the grace to “beget and raise
children.”
In this mystery of spiritual maternity, of begetting
for eternal life, Christ is the type, the exemplar. Christ is Father and the
first hence we call him Father-Forever (Is 9:5). We are Fathers by
participation in His paternity; we are Fathers “through Him, with Him, and in
Him.”[2]
What is necessary for this?
God is God: He is the Father.
1st The Most Important: a vivid consciousness
of the divine paternity and His majesty, to Whom belongs all things.
2nd To not usurp the glory of God. The
bonds of spiritual maternity are stronger than those of the flesh but they
should not appropriate what belongs to God: “the glory of God be for God,” respecting
to the maximum the liberty and conscience of each one.
3rd Ask for the spirit of mother. Having
the spirit of His Son and pure love of God, we must ask for the spirit of
mother with his sons that we ought to beget.[3]
Thus, the religious becomes a visible image of God the
Father who we do not see.[4]
(Cont Part 2..)
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