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Good morning. 55 years ago two women gave birth to girls in a West Midlands hospital. Now it has been announced that the NHS are going to pay compensation because they had been switched at birth. The babies had been taken away at night to give their mothers some rest, as was the custom in those days, but next morning they had been taken to the wrong mother. Due to some chance DNA testing this has now been discovered, and of course the effect on the two families has been traumatic. For although our genes shape so much of what we do the relationship we have with our mother or mother figure is no less decisive and colours out whole attitude to life. As Freud put it ‘He who is the favourite of his mother goes through life with the sense of a conqueror.’-which poses the question, what about those who are not the favourite.

I recently saw Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at the National Theatre. What is so interesting about this play is the link between the personal and the political. Coriolanus is a strong Roman General who is urged to stand for election, but behind him is his mother, for she is the dominant figure in his life. His uneasy relationship with the populace reflects his relationship with his mother, and depends on whether he does what she wants or rebels against it.

Some of us are blessed to have been brought up by wonderful mothers or mother figures-some people I know have had a horrible childhood that seared them for life. What the Gospels suggest however is that whatever formation we had as a child we can find a home in a new community of care that transforms everything. There is a rather disturbing story of the time when Jesus was teaching and surrounded by a crowd when someone came in to tell him that his mother was outside and Jesus replied ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’ It sounds a bit hard on his mother. But she remained close to him and was by the cross when he was crucified, as was the beloved disciple John. It was then that the truth of what Jesus said became clear, for she was told ‘Here is your son’ and John was told ‘Here is your mother’ and from then on she made her home with him. Whether our mothering has been wonderful or flawed it is open to us create new communities of mutual care.