woe is worship
Two years ago, this is what was happening. August, 2018. Concurrently, my husband and I had heart issues and needed a stent put in, STAT. (him). And was playing a small part in a community production of The Tempest, slipped coming offstage, tore the ligament off my thumbbone and required reconstructive surgery on my hand (me). Sparky’s surgery was on the Thursday, mine, Friday. Messy.
Some months give you more perspective than others.
I was at Mass this week, and in Father’s homily, which I remember too little of, I DO remember that he reminded us that woe is worship. Unfortunately, with the language barrier I mis-heard the maxim. What he actually said was “work is worship.” But I heard “woe is worship” and, well, August being what it was, I experienced more woe (because I have one hand to use now) than work because it’s hard to work with one hand.
But woe as worship got me thinking. Woe could absolutely be worship. Woe is a form of suffering. When we experience woe, we have an opportunity to respond to that woe in a beautiful way. What kind of woe do we experience as homeschooling moms?
How much time you got…?
Let’s take it from the very top of motherhood:
morning sickness, stretch marks, indigestion, birth, breastfeeding challenges, sleepless nights, endless diapers, toddlers, sass, attitude, financial worries, meals, snacks, laundry, juice on floors, teaching math, checking boxes, teaching essay writing, teenagers. Nota bene: this is an incomplete list of the woeful stuff. There’s lots of fun stuff that I won’t be elaborating on for the purpose of today’s post.
But how do we respond? To all that woe. If we respond with love, with compassion, with not yelling – we grow in holiness. We worship with our actions. We imitate Christ in our woe. We give good example. We worship by living the example. We work towards loving responses. We worship because we love.
So yes, work is worship. Woe is worship. Language barriers provoke wonder. Casts provoke woe.
And perspective. In August.