To be fruitful is painful!

God's first commandment is to be fruitful and multiply.[Gen.1.28]. When we reflect on child birth, we know it is painful to be fruitful.

Every conception leads to fruition. In the case of birth, the seed of life the women conceives has to be delivered. Her body prepares for this event by dilating painfully beyond what is visibly possible. But at the end the reality of a new born child turns this pain into inexplicable joy.

Jesus on the cross gave himself to his bride and continues to give himself in the Eucharist. His body and ours unite in a one flesh union leading to a similar fruitfulness. Our bodies must expand; stretch beyond what seems visibly possible, to be fruitful. When we co-operate with the plan of God, just as Mary did, just as the church does, we too will glorify God and his Joy shall be full. This pain is the unconditional sweet pain we suffer for the other. Just as Christ washed his bride clean by his own blood before he embraced her in an eternal nuptial bond, we too by our suffering part take in this life giving washing and redemption.

As husbands we are called to love our spouse and children like God loves. When we stretch ourselves beyond what is seemingly possible to love them, we partake in the divine act of cleansing. God consecrates our suffering. We prepare them too to unite to Christ in an eternal nuptial bond.

The writhing pain of a mother as she brings forth the offspring is her unconditional suffering for the sake of her beloved, in an exchange of love that is similar to that of Christ on the cross. God consecrates this suffering of the mother to be redemptive in and though the merit of his own suffering. She suffers to purify her offspring.

This does not in any way discredit Christ's eternal sacrifice to redeem us but is an attempt to see human himself being as a sacrament. What among the whole of creation points to the mystery of God better than we do. Our sufferings finds it end though Jesus' suffering and not with out it.

Someone once told me that our Lord's mother told her in a private revelation that Mary did not endure pain when she delivered Jesus. It could well be a reliable one as Jesus did not require his mother to suffer in child birth for he was sinless.