spidey-senses

Women tend to have a mysterious emotional radar they feel within their bones when something isn’t quite right. Some call it a “Mother’s intuition” but Edith Stein calls it “active sympathy” which is closely “bound” to our maternal instincts (Stein, 46). Woman have the capacity to take on the same pain and the same joys as others. It can be quite the burden taking on the burdens of the people we love but we grow and expand our hearts enough to make room for them. We also quickly notice unsaid ques or subtle shifts in our world when something isn’t right.

For instance, a personal story of mine that my parents love to tell is from my time as a troubled teenager who was up to no good. I told my parents I was at a friend’s house when I was out with a bunch of boys whom my parents would not approve of. Something in my Mom’s heart of hearts triggered an uneasy sentiment that caused her to track down my actual whereabouts thus grounding me for the rest of the summer. My Father recollects a strange “gut” feeling my Mom had about that night. He says that “she just knew” even though I had done anything differently than I would usually do when lying to my parents. The empathetic and protective part of my Mom’s maternal nature picked up on my bad behaviour and saved me from potential heart-break.

Here are a few picks of my amazing Mama. Yes that is Chase and Jeff from the Bachelor and yes she is touching their abs.

Moving on… Our sweet, Heavenly Mother has shown us her gift of maternal empathy at the Wedding feast at Cana. To the Eastern people, wine symbolized health and well-being, therefore, running out of wine was socially taboo at a wedding. Considering that they also lived in the centre of wine country, the bride and groom most likely had an abundance of wine. The Eastern people were notorious for their hospitality and the bride and groom had nothing left to give their guests. Our Mother came to the rescue and saw the needs of the wedding party thus immediately leaping into action to save their wedding. Fulton Sheen says that Mary “notes our needs before we ourselves feel them”.  (Sheen, 117). Mary, being groomed and fashioned to one day be the Spiritual Mother to us all, empathized with the embarrassment of the bride and groom so much so, she brought their needs to her Son. She knew her Son was capable of doing more than she could do, so she looked for the ultimate remedy to this humiliation. She is indeed our perfect role-model of feminine empathy which I believe we can all relate to in some way or another.