Commentary on the Gospel of
Birthing God
My Roots and My Destiny is a book that contains the diary writings of a little orphan Indian girl who was adopted by a Belgian family. As an adult, Julie Hendrix returns to India twice, in search of her mother and her roots. The searing pain of the search she captures in this line poignantly: “I am giving birth to my mother.”
Aren’t we all called to be mothers, giving birth to God? We are like the woman in childbirth who “is in distress because her time is at hand”— to give birth to God in the world. As in any childbirth, it involves searing pain, sorrow, and tears. Yet, a mother looks forward to this moment, embraces this moment of sorrow as a moment of grace; because, this sorrow is not a negative one, but a life-giving, creative one. It is a sorrow that would soon be transformed into joy. It is the very birthing of joy itself. And this is our vocation on earth.
