When I think of mothers, my thoughts turn automatically to the story of a woman of the Old Testament named Jochebed. She was the mother of Moses, whom God raised up to deliver Israel from slavery under the Egyptians.
Just before her son was born, Pharaoh had ordered the massacre of all male children, as Herod did in the time of Jesus. Jochebed was able to keep her son with her for three months, but then she had to rely on her faith and let him go.
And so she took a basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and put Moses inside. She then entrusted the basket to the river, as if to say: “God, I have no other choice. I have done all I can to hide my son. Now I place this child in the river, and I entrust him to you.”
The child was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who raised him as her own.
Based on the Old Testament account from the Book of Exodus 2:1-10, were Jochebed transported to the present day, I might imagine her praying for her son in this way:
Lord, what else can I do!
I have guarded my son; I have cared for him with all of my devotion.
I have done everything in my power to protect him.
Now I place him in your hands, and I believe in your protection.
In this river of life protect him, and free him from all evil.
Deliver him from the bloodthirsty man, from the stray bullet, and from the attacker.
Do not allow anything bad to happen to him.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
~
This article originally appeared in Aleteia’s Portuguese edition.
And today we celebrate...