In May we celebrate the month of Mary, Mother’s Day and the liturgical Feast of the Visitation. Now that’s plenty to inspire contemplation for 31 days!

The Visitation always captures my imagination. According to St. Luke’s Gospel account, the young Mary, fresh with the awesome realization that she is miraculously to be the mother of the Messiah, makes her way from Nazareth in Galilee to visit her older cousin Elizabeth, who though thought to be barren, is now pregnant with John the Baptist. Can you imagine the talks these two women had? Imagine the wonderment they expressed to one another, the wisdom they shared, and the quiet, homely tasks they worked at together, preparing for the births of their sons.

They were humble, simple women. They lived in obscurity in a backwater of the Roman Empire. With great faith they remained completely open to the workings of God’s will in their lives. Who would have imagined then that because they lived out God’s will even when it seemed incomprehensible, two thousand years later their names would still be spoken with reverence around the world and that millions of people would call Mary “Mother.”

How many humble, simple people do we overlook today? We live in a pragmatic materialistic culture that ranks achievement and usefulness as major human values, and too often we marginalize the poor, the sick, the elderly; in short, all those who don’t “produce.” In contrast, our Catholic faith teaches that we are created in the image of God and that all—all—human life is sacred, from conception to natural death.

Pope Benedict has beautifully expressed human dignity with these words: “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”

My mother is 93 years old. She has Alzheimer’s. She needs 24/7 care. As the world sees it, she is no longer “useful.” Often when we talk, she tells me “I don’t know why God keeps me around; I’m not good for much.” My response is always the same: “God needs you here to pray for your children and grandchildren.” And invariably, her face lights up and she proclaims with delight, “I do, every day!”

Now, realistically, given the extent of Mom’s memory loss, I doubt she spends much of every day reciting the Our Father. But I’m certain that with all of its frustrations and sufferings and sorrows, as well as the simple things that bring her joy, her whole life now is one great offering of herself in prayer, and that our Lord understands everything she is unable to express in words. She teaches me much about courage, humility, acceptance and patient endurance.

How blessed we are by the universal motherhood of Mary. How blessed we are by our mothers, grandmothers, saints (capital and small “s”) and all the women who have nurtured us, taught us, fussed over us, taken us to task when we needed correction, and who continue to pray for us on our journeys through life. This May, let’s celebrate motherhood and maternal love.

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