A mother can, with a single glance, with one kiss, with her sweet voice and
tender caress, at once evoke the desire and inclination for virtue within the heart
of her child. Similarly, the same mother, with one glance of disapproval, with one
tear rolling down her cheek, through a single expression that reveals the pain in
her heart, is capable of distancing her child from a destructive evil endangering
his heart. As a child is raised in the motherly bosom and warmed in the maternal
embrace, he begins to love even before he learns the meaning of love, and he
begins to submit his will to the ethical law even before he comprehends the
ethical law. A mother alone is the most suitable person to foster the initial
understanding concerning God within an infant’s heart.
On account of this, St. Basil the Great says: “the understanding of God that
I received as an infant from my blessed mother has flourished within me. I have
not changed anything when I reached maturity, but I perfected the principles that
were entrusted to me by her.” While Pestalozzi, foremost amongst contemporary
educators, attributes the entire religious education of a child to his mother and
proclaims: “I believed my mother. Her heart showed God to me. My God is the
God of my mother. The God of my heart is the God of her heart. O mother, dear
mother! You revealed God to me through your instruction, and I found Him
through my obedience. O mother, dear mother! If I forget God, I will forget you
yourself.”
However, just as a mother’s every virtuous deed, every good word, and
each righteous disposition constitute the cornerstone for the child’s ensuing
virtuous works, words, and inclinations, similarly, a mother’s every evil deed,
word, and disposition contains destructive seeds for the child’s ensuing evil
actions, words, and inclinations. Thus, a child eventually becomes similar to what
his mother is like. If a mother’s soul is hideous, malicious, dark, corrupt,
insensitive, and coarse, if her inclinations are evil, her manners scandalous,
immodest, and indecent, if she is prone to impiety, anger, hatred, and other
irrational passions, then it will not be long before these evil stalks spring up from
the child as well. Conversely, if a mother’s soul is divine, pure, joyous, innocent,
and full of the fear of Lord, if her inclinations are noble and holy, if her
dispositions are serene, God-loving, and compassionate, then a child’s soul,
reflecting itself in front of such a mirror and imperceptibly mimicking her,
becomes similar to his mother, and, with time, he propagates seeds of virtue.
Hence, when the great Napoleon asked a certain renowned educator of that time
(by the name of Madame Campan) what France was in need of in order to
acquire good and virtuous men, “mothers,” responded this prudent lady to the
monarch. “Then,” instructed the prominent emperor, “produce such women who
will be capable of fulfilling this immense national goal.”
—by St. Nektarios—
