Our Point of Departure

I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother. –Psalms 131:2

Dear members and friends of the Swedenborgian Church,

“Mother” is a magic word. This word often brings almost an immediate comfort to a troubled child, especially to infants and toddlers. “Mother” is still a very strong word in the minds of adults as well. The magical power of “mother” as a concept and symbol of comfort and nurture does not diminish in our minds as we become older, even if our own mothers might not exactly reflect the image of an ideal mother. The reason is that the word mother is embedded with in-depth archetypal meaning that has been real and true to us since the very beginning of our existence.

Our mother is the source of our being, both physically and developmentally: we grow inside our mother’s womb and are fed by her milk after birth. She is also the foundation of our being emotionally and psychologically: we shared our mother’s emotions – literally – for a long time including while being inside her belly! The Hebrew word for mother is ame, meaning “point of departure.” Mother is the departure point for all human life physically, emotionally, and developmentally. As the journey of life is often filled with challenges, obstacles, temptations and hardships, we all might have a kind of nostalgia about being with our mother at a time before it all began. Consequently, we often have an expectation that our mother, who is older and weaker than us, still has the magical power to bring us back into undisturbed comfort and easiness just as we felt when we were inside our mother or in her arms as infants.

The Greek word for mother is meter, meaning “the source of something.” Our mothers are the source of our being physically, emotionally and psychologically. Our reason to honor and respect our mothers should not be drawn from how much our mothers did and still do for us, but from the truth that our mothers are the very source of our being in whom we were formed and out of whose selfless love we were nurtured.

May all mothers be filled with joy and fulfillment for who they are, and may all children remember and reflect on how their life began in their mothers. Happy Mothers’ Day!

Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee