May: The Earthy Month

by Jillian Cooke, MTh, MAPM
Fr. Kolbe Missionary of the Immaculata

Let everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord!
Daniel 3:57-88

It's May. I hear these words and Camelot comes to mind, with this song's melody passing through my head and stopping abruptly at the heart. The tune is interwoven with the realization that it is Mary's month, the month of motherhood, when trees bear fruit and women bear children. There is an earthiness to the month of May that, perhaps, we fail to recognize and thus have not yet fully taken the month for Our Lady. Mother's Day in the southern hemisphere, by the way, is celebrated in November.... Spring. It just makes sense.

Working nine to five (if you're lucky, not nine to nine), sitting in front of computers, staying indoors, heaters, air conditioners, supermarkets, etc has definitely played its toll on our biological clocks. But, clearly, they have not fully destroyed them. Spring still comes every year. Our bodies know that it has arrived, even if we don't stop to smell the roses. After Easter, until Christmas, we seem to just completely lose track. There is no major holiday to orient us toward heaven. In losing step with the "seasonal" calendar, we in effect, lose step with the liturgical calendar.

We can change that, however, by asking ourselves what the Lord wishes to show us in the movement of the seasons. What stirs our hearts, and how can this be oriented to praise the Lord? We can begin by celebrating May. It is Easter time. It is the month of Mary. It is a hopeful waiting for the coming of the Spirit in truth and love. Blooming flowers should bring to mind crowns for Our Lady and bouquets for the Church. Longer days ought to remind us of the light of Christ. Energy and "spring fever" ought to be directed toward service and holy friendships. The liturgical calendar, our faith, is not about inventing, but rather about living fully day to day in the awareness of God's unfailing presence.

Like Guinevere, we ought to be aware of what is going on inside of us - our temptations and desires - but unlike Guinevere they must be oriented to the Divine. This "earthiness" of Guinevere, dare I say, can be appreciated. The problem (and it is a big problem of course), is that we are called to grow out of this earthiness to bear divine fruit.  It is only in the Divine that our desires can be fulfilled, and only in the divine that our temptations can be overcome. We are not called to repress our human nature, but we are called to a supernatural transformation. Continuing the analogy we are "grafted" with the divine life and forever changed.

It's May! How will you celebrate?