Chains of Peter...Chains of Motherhood

I will never forget the Homily of Joseph Ratzinger at Pope John Paul II’s funeral Mass. I was forever changed by these words,

"Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow me afterward." (Jn 13:33,36). Jesus from the Supper went towards the Cross, went towards his resurrection – he entered into the paschal mystery; and Peter could not yet follow him. Now – after the resurrection – comes the time, comes this "afterward." By shepherding the flock of Christ, Peter enters into the paschal mystery, he goes towards the cross and the resurrection. The Lord says this in these words: "... when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go" (Jn 21:18). In the first years of his pontificate, still young and full of energy, the Holy Father went to the very ends of the earth, guided by Christ. But afterwards, he increasingly entered into the communion of Christ’s sufferings; increasingly he understood the truth of the words: "Someone else will fasten a belt around you." And in this very communion with the suffering Lord, tirelessly and with renewed intensity, he proclaimed the Gospel, the mystery of that love which goes to the end (cf. Jn 13:1).

This is the same scripture that is read in the Eastern Church on the feast of the “Veneration of the Chains of Peter”.
My sisters and I are always joking about the first few years after you have a baby. We call it “being in the cage.”
As an older mother I remember being a younger mother and feeling that loss of freedom, of being taken where I didn’t want to go. While I didn’t entirely resist it, I remember feeling terribly confined. Of course I loved my kids, but I hadn’t yet learned the art of sacrificing for the will of God which ALWAYS results in TRUE happiness.

In one of my favorite books about the history of the Papacy, whenever a new King in Europe came to power, a piece of Peter’s chains were sent as a relic to adorn the crown of the new leader. A reliquary was tooled in to the very crown of EVERY king for over a thousand years (even the not so good ones including Henry the Eighth.) The purpose? To remind the new King that their power would often take them to places that they would prefer not to go but that they were bound to the loving teachings of Christ just as Saint Peter was.

Every mother should be given a reliquary compartment at the birth of their first child as a reminder of the same thing, don’t you think?