"Mothers are the strongest antidote to the spread of selfish individualism," --A world without mothers would be "inhumane," -- "because mothers always know how to give witness -- even in the worst of times -- to tenderness, dedication and moral strength."
Pope Francis
The words above were spoken by Pope Francis at his 2015, January 7th audience. Beautiful words which speak to the tenderness and sacrificial love of a mother.
There is a saying in the pro life movement; abortion does not take away the fact that you are a mother, it just makes you the mother of a dead child. How true.
As someone who aborted a child, at one time the pope’s words above could have sent me into despair. A reminder of all I was not, the lack of self sacrifice and an inhumane act that became a part of my life. But the beauty of our faith and the unfathomable love and mercy of God tell us that it is never too late to love. He is always there calling us to Himself, and restoring that which we destroyed through sin.
As Pope John Paul the II said in the Gospel of Life when speaking of abortion, “Nothing is definitively lost.” Why? Because of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. That through His death, resurrection and ascension He has opened life and the chance to love once again, a living relationship with my child Joshua who He desires for me to take as my own as He intended.
Through my faith in His love and mercy, I am able to, with confidence, reclaim my child and become spiritually the mother I failed to be physically. “Mothers always know how to give witness -- even in the worst of times -- to tenderness, dedication and moral strength."
And so, through the grace of God I give witness, “even in the worst of times” to the dignity of each life, and as ironic as it sounds, to my love and dedication to my aborted son.
I may not have allowed myself to love him on earth, and that act is always wrong, but he is engrained in my heart because I am his mother and a mother’s heart is tenderness. It is sad that so many women find out too late that even abortion cannot take that love away. That love that is part of who we are as human beings made in the image of God, made to give life and nurture our children.
And so, I am eternally grateful for the love of God who used my son through my greatest sin to teach me of true love, His love which gives me the courage and moral strength to proclaim the dignity of each human life and the evil of abortion.
