Friday begins the usually beautiful month of May. May is the month of family celebrations: Mother’s Day, weddings, First Holy Communions, Confirmations, anniversaries, and the unofficial start of summer on Memorial Day, sadly not this year. Weddings, as well as our First Communions, and Confirmations are postponed to October, (hopefully), even summer vacation at the beach is in question.
Despite the troubles we are going through, May remains the month of promise and hope. It is the month dedicated to Mary, our Blessed Mother. It is no coincidence that May is Mary’s month. Mary is a person of promise and hope.
Mary’s ‘yes’ to the Archangel Gabriel gave the world its Promise and Hope in her Son, Jesus. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, an 11
th Century Saint who wrote with great love about Mary preached in the following homily,
In Praise of the Virgin Mother:
You have heard, O Virgin that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.
Our Blessed Mother who brought forth Life Itself is celebrated in a month when nature bursts forth with new life. One can start to feel the warmth of the sun. The trees are budding, the azaleas are truly magnificent in their colors, the flowers are popping forth, and the grass is even green. The days are getting longer, more light than darkness; the sun rises early, and sets later.
Let the “merry ole month of May” be for us as country and church, a month of
promise and hope. We pray in a special way to our Lady, the Patroness of the United States, the Health of the Sick and the Cause of our Joy, to watch over and protect us all. For we too are people of hope and promise, and we celebrate for the 50 days of the Easter Season.