The Motherhood of Yogurt

F

or years, making yogurt has been one of my quiet hobbies. There are those who keep an heirloom “mother yogurt” going for generations—hence the saying that yogurt can essentially live forever.

In my case, I would often start again by simply buying another cup of yogurt to use as the starter. I thought I was missing out on something special because I did not have that continuous line of culture.

But then I came to realize: any yogurt can become a mother. The essential ingredient in making yogurt is always the mother—the starter that makes the next batch possible. And the truth is, even the ordinary yogurt you pick up over the counter can bear that role once it begins to function as such.

What makes it mother is not its age or pedigree, but the way it gives of itself. Mixed into the warm milk, it loses its form, it disappears—and yet in that self-sacrifice, it transforms the whole. It brings forth life in abundance.

After years of doing this as a hobby, it dawned on me that yogurt teaches a deeper lesson: motherhood is not about clinging to status or lineage, but about self-giving that creates new life. Even the simplest spoonful shows us that fruitfulness is born in sacrifice, in disappearing so that others may live. Fr JM Manzano SJ