Our youngest, Joseph, is off to college at Duquesne University. Like many moms, I shed a tear, just as I did his first day of Pre- School. Heavens, I even got a painful lump in my throat as I gave him a final hug good bye. It seemed like just yesterday when I carried him in my womb and marveled at his first baby picture on the ultrasound machine! As I turned to leave him at his college dorm, I recalled, with a comforting sense of awe, the article I had recently read about the incredibly intimate bond between a mother and child that Science now calls Fetal Microchimerism.
The fetal microchimerism phenomena occurs when stem cells from the baby in a mother’s womb cross the placenta and take up residence in other parts of the mother. Decades of research has proven that some cells from every child a woman carries in her womb remain in her body for the rest of her life! This is true whether the mother carries to term or not. The cells never absorb or mutate, but continue to exist with their distinct characteristics. How amazing is it that Joseph is literally a part of me! Each of my sons is a part of me in this astoundingly intimate way!
Personally, for me, the intellectually sounding word fetal microchimerism loses its aloof, biological meaning and moves my soul to its deepest sanctuary where a union so profound takes place as this mother realizes that she also carries the living cells of her daughter she miscarried 30 years ago! Cells of that child, (my son Seth’s twin), who I named Melissa Marie, remain in my body - the body of her mother, for life! How amazingly astounding is the role of Motherhood! Think of it. Your living cells remain in your mother’s body for as long as she lives! And there is more. Do you know what the infant’s living cells do when a mother has an illness? Now they are finding that the cells of the children rush to the site of the mother’s body that is sick. Even in the case of abortion, the living cells of the baby remain in the mother and fight for her illnesses in her body!
Certificate of Life for Melissa Marie
This child, whom I have surrendered in sorrow, has gone before me into the presence of God. One moment in the presence of God gives Melissa Marie more love and knowledge than I could give her in a lifetime. Science has shown us this physical bonding, and our God of unity also allows an understanding of that deep spiritual bonding which is love. Parents should name those children they have given in sorrow to the Lord, count them as members of the family and ask their powerful prayers.
As a Catholic, every time I receive Holy Communion, the veil of heaven is pulled back and Melissa Marie prepares me through her prayers, to receive Jesus! What a union! For those glorious moments, heaven comes to earth!
Doesn’t the magnificence and splendor of Almighty God’s unfathomable love and mercy on his children shake you to the core? It surely does me! Don’t you just want to shout like David did in Psalm 139 when he glorified God’s goodness saying,
“You formed my inmost being;
You knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
Wonderful are your works!
My very self you know.”
Speaking of David also reminds me of his dance before the Ark of the Covenant from the Old Testament. You know the Ark - the one made of pure gold and incorruptible wood, the one that contained three things: the Ten Commandments on stone, the manna the Israelites were fed in the desert and the priestly rod of Aaron. The one that was overshadowed and was God’s dwelling place for God’s people as they journeyed to the promised land. David sent it off to the hill country of Judea for three months, but when it returned, oh did he dance and sing before the Ark!
All of these thoughts about David’s leaping and dancing in front of the Ark, as well as the thoughts of living infant cells remaining in the mother, reminds me of the passage of scripture of Mary, (who had been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and Incarnate with Preborn Jesus) setting out in haste to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. Well, just like all that leaping David did in front of the Ark, so too did John the Baptist leap in the womb of his Mother, Elizabeth, when Mary arrived! In fact, David’s words were, “Who am I that the Ark should come to me?” and Elizabeth’s words were “And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Wow! And just like that Ark that was sent to the hill country of Judea for three months, Mary stayed in the hill country of Judea for three months. Oh, and scripture tells us that both places were greatly blessed!
Contemplating all that has been presented thus far about fetal microchimerism must give us pause! What of the living, sacred cells of Jesus in Mary? Across the placenta, Jesus’ infant cells became one with His Holy Mother, whose body, the Ark of The New Covenant, is truly the dwelling place of God. Her Body was not a type of incubator that housed the Savior of the World for nine months, and then shoved to the side. Rather, hers was the body containing the Living Cells of Jesus! Her body would not suffer corruption, but by Our Heavenly Father’s choosing, would be assumed into heaven!
Our Lady Assumed into heaven
In closing, let us meditate on the words of St. Francis de Sales, “The chaste womb resembles the Ark in which were the manna, the rod of Aaron which had blossomed, and the tablets of the Law of Moses (Heb 9:4). ”Oh, how blessed then is this womb,” our Lord seems to say, “since it is more precious than the Ark of the Covenant; and ,therefore, how blessed is this Woman because she is my Mother. And certainly this happiness belongs only to her inasmuch as no other creature, whoever she might be, can or will ever be honored with the title of Mother of God.”
Restoring the loving relationships of parents with their children through God’s mercy
Melissa Marie and all the babies in heaven, pray for us!
Mary, Ark of The New Covenant, pray for us!