Monday, 18 April 2022

What is 'The Mother of God' ? by Jennie Hart

Lincoln Cathedral Statue

 From: ‘The Possessed’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And at that time an old woman, who was living in the convent doing penance for prophesying the future, whispered to me as she was coming out of the church, ‘What is the mother of God?’

The vicar had spoken of the ‘Mother of God’ during the course of his sermon and my mind slipped back to my childhood days and a picture in my illustrated bible. It was of Mary weeping at the foot of the cross. I was taught that Mary was a virgin, a Jewish girl from Nazareth and the wife of Joseph the carpenter. These were the facts I had learnt as a little girl but I had always found them strange and unbelievable. How do we know Jesus was not Joseph’s baby? If she were married to Joseph, was she likely to be a virgin?

We have a convent in our town, a strikingly beautiful building adjacent to the old Mary Magdalene church where my granddaughter Georgia and I went today. It is the convent where the old woman is serving her penance. She is Sister Rosemary and a familiar figure in town. It’s a self-imposed penance. Women are not sent to convents these days for their beliefs. Like Karen Armstrong, the author of ‘The Spiral Staircase’, Sister Rosemary believes she may find God by spending days in contemplation. She told me she has not found him yet. Nor did Karen Armstrong, who remained with the sisters for seven years. We have a mosque and a synagogue in our town too and members from both, serve on the council. Our mayor is from Bangladesh and very good at his job. There is quite a bit of prejudice in the town, prejudice being a euphemism for outright racism.

Today is a special Sunday because my granddaughter Georgia is staying with me, and she is my favourite guest. I am not in the habit of attending church but Georgia is taking a GCSE in RE so I thought it might be helpful as we could talk about the sermon and share our views. I do not pretend to be a Christian; I am an agnostic.

When Georgia was young, and lived close by, I used to collect her from school on the day she had bible stories. Often for her homework she had to make a drawing. She liked to draw the flat-roofed houses of Palestine as wobbly-edged squares. Her favourite subject was the lame man lowered through the roof for Jesus to heal. In Georgia’s drawing, the bed, with horizontal stick man, hovered over the house like a magic carpet. In another drawing was a stick man with smiley mouth, standing before his house waving a flag. Georgia had explained it was not a flag, it was his bed!

We walked home past the convent to our favourite bench by the river. I thought of the old woman’s query, thrown to the crowd: ‘What is the Mother of God?’

I asked Georgia if she imagined God having a mother. In her teenage practical manner, she said, of course, all creatures need a mother in order to exist. Here we entered existential territory and considered whether God was a creature or not. Georgia was not sure about God but knew Jesus was most definitely a creature because he was seen by his disciples and the pharisees.

 I get confused, said Georgia when I am told that God and Jesus are supposed to be the same; I don’t understand that. We are taught about the trinity being God the father, God the son and God the Holy ghost. What on earth is the Holy ghost and how can all three be one?

Religion can be very obscure; I think to myself. Georgia and I agree that the Three in One or Trinity is a difficult concept. Now we have two mysteries to solve; the Mother of God and the Holy Ghost?

We walked along the riverbank in heavenly sunshine; please note the adjective, religion is all-pervasive! We reached my cottage and took our coffee into the garden. We used Georgia’s i-pad to help us research the Holy Ghost.

We read: ‘The holy ghost or holy spirit is the divine force, the divine quality and influence of God over the universe or over his creatures. We noted there is also a holy spirit in Islam and in the Baha’i faith it is an intermediary between God and man.’ I suggested we concentrate on Christianity or there’d be no end to our investigation. Georgia told me that as a child, the mention of the Holy ghost made her think of a transparent figure in white, floating in the air and being very scary, as ghosts usually are.

We focus our attention on the Mother of God and concentrate on exploring our own ideas.

How do you visualise the mother of God, Georgia?

 Firstly, I am not sure if I believe in God, she says, but if I think of him, (and I never think he’s female), I see an old man with a long beard, looking down from a cloud with a kindly smile.

This used to be my own view too, I say, until I trained myself to think differently. My knowledge of the universe and its vastness has affected my belief in a God. Anthropomorphising God too, is a step too far. I explain my thoughts to Georgia

Again we have allowed ourselves to be diverted so we return to; ‘what is the mother of God?’

God seems too old to have a mother, says Georgia, and if I visualise his mother, I see her as young, like Mary, the mother of Jesus. How can that be?

That can only be explained if we think of God and Jesus as being one and the same, I say; Mary would be the mother of both father and son.  If we believed in eternal life, heaven would be a place where age no longer existed and then all things would be possible

Let’s free our minds and think in a more metaphorical way, I say; what was the vicar driving at? Do you think the mother of God is a metaphor? That it stands for something else? I was trying to lead Georgia to my own perspective, that most religious concepts are metaphorical.

 I decided to talk to Georgia about the Ancient Greeks and their mythology. I asked if she had heard of    Gaia. She shook her head, and I explained. According to the Greeks, Gaia was the Goddess of the Earth.  Another name given her by the Romans was Terra, which means Earth. Therefore Gaia, according to the Greeks, is Mother Earth.

So, do you think God stands for the Earth and that the mother of God, is the mother of the Earth?  Georgia asks?

            I believe I do, I say, but what form would she take? Does she have a form?

Georgia has no idea how God’s mother would look, but then she has an idea; if God is the Earth, then   surely the Earth’s mother will be something or somethings that look after the Earth, her son? Or daughter? All good mothers look after their children.

What do you think those things are? I say, It certainly isn’t human beings at the moment. What do you think nurtures our Earth?

Georgia gives it some thought. Well, I believe it is only the natural things that make our Earth a good place to be; like the sun, the rain and the wind. And also, all the living things like plants and insects, fish and birds, and animals. They live their lives in the only way they know how and make the Earth a beautiful place to live. I was delighted that Georgia had worked this out for herself, because her ideas matched mine exactly.

Georgia went home the next day but we promised to message each other and to continue thinking about the mother of God. I thought of going to talk to the old woman in the convent but first I looked along my bookshelves and took down Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Possessed.’ I remembered that in this novel, he spoke of God in a philosophical way. I found a page where the storyteller is telling another woman called ‘Shatuska’, about an old woman who came out of church and asked the storyteller: ‘what is the mother of God? Just as in my story.

Old woman: What is the mother of God? What do you think?

Storyteller: It is ‘The great mother, the hope of the human race.

Old woman: Yes, ‘the mother of God is the great mother- the damp earth, and therein lies great joy for men. And every earthly woe and every earthly tear is a joy for us; and when you water the earth with your tears a foot deep, you will rejoice at everything at once, and your sorrow will be no more; such is the prophecy.’

Here was the collaboration I needed for mine and Georgia’s understanding of the mother of God. I talked to Georgia that evening and she was excited about our theory. I am sure it will help in my exams she said. Perhaps it will surprise the examiners if I mention Dostoyevsky!

Just one funny thing, she said; I asked my friend Lizzie today if she knew what the mother of God was, and she then went on to make me laugh. She said; Georgia, do you ever watch the Line of Duty? No I said; why?

Well, said Lizzie; one of the characters, Superintendent Ted Hasting is known for his hilarious sayings, and his favourite one is:

 ‘Jesus, Mary and Mother of God!’ That made us both laugh. Then Lizzie told me he came out with a better one recently. This time, he said ‘Jesus, Mary and the wee donkey!’ That made us laugh out loud!

I listened to Georgia and then I laughed out loud too. We said goodnight.

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