Sunday, May 10 found Msgr. Morrissey and me at Our Lady of Consolation Home in West Islip to celebrate Mass on Mothers’ Day with the residents and those members of their families who could be present. It was a beautiful morning, and the residents who were able to join us in the auditorium/chapel were there with spring clothes and smiles on their faces. The choir was made up of about a dozen enthusiastic voices, a few of whom I met after Mass. My own reflection moved from the constancy of a mother’s love for which each of us is always grateful to the constancy of God’s love made manifest by the Risen Christ who “remains in us and we in Him.”

Later as I was reflecting on the joy we all shared at Mass, I was struck by how appropriate it is that we celebrate Mothers’ Day in the month of May, the month of Mary. In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks so beautifully and profoundly about the vine and the branches. He is the vine and we the branches who receive our nourishment from Him, the source of our sharing in the divine life and love. The Eucharist is the prime “place” where He nourishes us and we become ever more deeply “grafted into” the vine Who never ceases to feed us so that we can dwell in Him and He can remain in us. The closeness of our relationship to the Father through Christ in the love of the Spirit is a union which is the fruit of total gift, the gift of God’s love.

Of all the creatures who ever lived, who but Mary could have experienced that communion of life and love so intimately. As a mother, she literally gave of her very self to the Child in her womb Who dwelt in her all the months of His gestation. Who He is as the Son of God made flesh depends on two sources: the eternal Father and the terrestrial mother; and all that He is humanly finds its source in her goodness, her generosity, her maternal giving of self!

And yet the wonder of the mystery of divine life and love is that she has been made worthy of this because God made her so by dwelling in her heart “before her Son dwelt in her womb.” God readied her for this mystery by having her dwell in Him in an intimacy even more profound than that of the child who dwells in his mother’s womb! Can there ever be an exchange of gifts so wondrous and so moving! Can we ever exhaust our sense of wonder and awe at what God has wrought because of the free consent of the maiden of Nazareth whose YES was the necessary condition for God’s divine plan for the salvation of all humankind!

When Jesus, the night before He died, opened up His heart to his disciples and spoke of the love God gives us so that we might dwell in Him and He in us, can anyone doubt that the picture of His own mother was in His heart and before His eyes? She who was “full of grace” by divine dispensation from her own conception, remains the one closest to Jesus not only because she bore Him into the world but, even more, because the One she bore into the world was already the intimate bridegroom of her heart and soul, an intimacy that only grew until finally she was assumed body and soul into heaven as Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of God, the mother of us all.

Jesus, speaking of the intimacy He gives us as the vine to the branches, tells us, “If you remain in Me and My word remains in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” As the first disciple of her Son, Mary shows us the way by her life that first bore the fruit of the Son made man into the world and then continued to grow in a discipleship that spanned her whole life to the cross and beyond, from the first Pentecost to her dormition. Her motherhood becomes the great mystery that reveals to us the way to being true disciples. Her fidelity remains for us the great example of how to be true sons and daughters who, guided by her example and her love for us, seek to live ever more deeply the life that is ours as branches of the vine, as member of His Body, as the community of communion which is the Church.

St. Irenaeus tells us the “glory of God is manifest in us being fully alive.” To be alive in Christ is to be alive in His Spirit, to have Him dwelling in us and we in Him. To be fully alive means becoming more and more like the first disciple, Mary. From “faithful daughter of Sion” to being the “Tabernacle of the Most Holy,” she became the Mother of our redemption and the faithful disciple at the foot of the cross. Her faithfulness made her the hidden “witness” of the resurrection which became manifest when the Holy Spirit was poured forth on the disciples that first Pentecost. By God’s plan and Jesus’ own witness she is made mother of us all and the gateway to our Maker.

In her we find the way to her Son. In her we find all we need to become true disciples. From her we receive guidance and inspiration, help and protection. May we honor her every day of our lives, seek especially in this month dedicated to her to become ever closer to her as the sure and most blessed path to union with her Son. For “by this is the Father glorified, that we bear much fruit and become his disciples.” Vergine Immaculata, aiutateci. Immaculate Virgin, help us now and always.