God Sister Teresa
Princess Charlotte fell on the Tarmac at Hamburg Airport in July, lost her temper and cried.
Initially, I was very irritated by this being presented as a news item: why couldn’t the poor child have a tantrum in privacy which most of us consider to be our due?
The Duchess of Cambridge picked up her little daughter and hugged her, so that the crumpled, tear-stained face could not be seen and the tiny flailing fists were put out of action. There was something very natural and very unself-conscious in the way she did this in full view of the press. Such kindness is exemplary and sets a very salutary standard; so perhaps it was a good thing that the world was informed about the calm normality of one young mother’s conduct.
‘As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you’ (Isaiah 66:13). There is no sentimentality in the Old Testament, but it does not ignore that there is at times an unhappy child in all of us; a child for whom consolation is totally appropriate. One can only be thankful that Isaiah had the wisdom to notice this.
We don’t always understand that we have a need for solace; that there is no obligation to keep up the iron selfcontrol that prevents our emotions from surfacing and rebuffs those who love us from giving a helping hand.
Perhaps a friend wants to relieve our ageing selves from anxieties, fears and griefs. Perhaps he or she might be successful if they were allowed to try. If there is someone at hand who can help, spurning that person doesn’t make much sense.
Isaiah is referring to God and encouraging us to go to him in prayer with our woes, but this does not mean bypassing human help: on the contrary.
That least sentimental of novelists, Nancy Mitford, whose childhood was fraught with difficulties, writes in Don’t
Tell Alfred of the formidable Uncle Matthew greeting his niece Fanny (who fears she is suffering from middle-aged blight) with ‘“How are you my dear child?” It was comfortable to be my dear child again…’ There is something to be said for at times shedding the responsibilities of adulthood to allow ourselves to be looked after. ‘Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God’ (Luke 18:16).
Jesus was speaking forthrightly about his concern for all, even the least significant, and this gives us a hint as to his Father’s interest in us: in who we are and what we do.