God as Father, and Mother?!

His Holiness, Pope John Paul I had this to say on September 10, 1978 in his Angelus address to the people:

“We are the objects of undying love on the part of God. We know: he has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark. He is our father; even more his is our mother. He does not want to hurt us, He wants only to do good to us, to all of us. If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we too, if by chance we are sick with badness, on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord.”

What is remarkable here is the image of God as mother.  We as Christians are not used to this imagery, even though the ancient Hebrews would occasionally use the image of a mother to describe God’s love for his people. I don’t know, but to my knowledge, no other pope in modern memory at least has ever referred to God as “our mother.”

Doing so does not detract from God’s being or doing. It doesn’t diminish what we know and believe regarding our Blessed Mother Mary.

God of course has no gender, for he is infinitely pure divine spirit.  

Over the course of salvation history, the ancient inspired writers of the scriptures have tended to use the imagery of fatherhood to depict God the Father and that of fire or wind or water or a dove to depict the Holy Spirit and the youthful man for Jesus. Yet the Old Testament does in places use the image of a mother to make a point about God’s fidelity and his love.

I can well imagine a number of eyes were raised and sighs groaned when Papa Luciani mentioned God as mother in this address. But you cannot dispute the point being made. God loves his people with a maternal tenderness and fidelity, just as he loves us as a father who loves his children. 

We are loved by our infinite God.