THE MARY FLOWER GARDEN IN MAY

(VƯỜN HOA THÁNG NĂM CỦA MẸ)

                                                 Author : Jorathe Nắng Tím

                                                    Translator : A. Prisca

At early dawn, Mother Mary starts her busy day to take care of her special flower garden.

         

Mother Mary really has a special love for this flower garden. It has been cleared up and built up by herself from a piece of abandoned land ragged with thorny bushes and big stumps that incompletely chopped and burnt.

            Looking at how she takes care of flowers and tends her own beds lets us know the heart-burning love she gives to this garden : the way she holds a hoe, the way she cultivates camellias, hyacinths, honeysuckle, gardenias, lilies, chrysanthemums, moon cactus,  morning glory, dogwood or roses, the way she lovingly tends the flowerbeds of rose arbor on the south lawn, the magical way she cherishes the Cherokee rose… A wide variety of flowers have been brought to be nourished with her deep appreciation of beauty in her gardern, whose paths form an ornate, looping design, cutting the beds into odd shaoed but organized patterns and in which there is a large wooden arbor at the center that is thick with yellow jasmine and honeysuckle.

          This garden is considered a heavy splendid treasure that she can never keeps far away; the garden in her heart is like a sweet-natured and gorgeous daughter she can never loses; there is no doubt that the garden is such a joyful pride for her.

           However, over the past few months, Mother Mary has been seen walking silently and contemplatively every morning in this garden and pondering sadly step by step back home every evening. Her heart has been severely hurt and her eyes have been filled with tears due to the bad happenings with her beautiful flowers : roses attacked by budworms, apricot blossoms attacked by bugs, orchid spikes lacking of some more sunshine… She has become more and more anxious and worried about her garden destroyed day by day and tries to find a way out to recover and maintain “her lovely and scented flower garden”.

          The above-mentioned garden, the Mary Flower Garden, is the Garden of humankind, in which every person is a beautiful flower tree, a delicate flower branch, a sweet and fresh unopened bud with a wide variety of vivid shiny colors and pleasant fragrances under Mother Mary’s loving care and protection.

          For the last few months, this Garden has been utterly destroyed by a virus named Corona as well as other deadly viruses which are much more dangerous than Corona, called “virus of selfisheness, virus of pompousness, virus of jealousy, virus of greed, virus of severe and bloody violence, virus of backbiting, virus of false accusations, virus of slander… etc… even the virus of insult to the Creator of the World. Recently, this Garden has become a bloody battlefield, a hospital without enough beds for patients, a giant mortuary, a cemetery with collective burial pits ; all those things have cut off the joy of flowers blooming at  dawn or the dancing flower branches in spring breeze and cheery sunshine and have lead to the terribly gloomy and desperately sad atmostphere over the garden.

           Consequently , we are confused about where to find such beautiful flowers of the world to offer Mother Mary this May as we do every year for you.  

          Nevetheless, when we are in the chaos amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, Mother Mary has shown  us another flower garden, “The New Flower Garden of Mankind”, in which all flowers bloom from “thorny crown, iron nail, lance” of The Crucified Jesus : a bunch of flowes of “Self-Scacrificing and Self-Giving Love” of those who devotedly take care of patients with coronavirus confirmed infection in hospitals, a bunch of flowers of “Compassionate Love” of those who willingly to share food and necessary goods with the poor, the homeless or the marginalized; a banquet of flowes of  Humility in Love in voluntary service to the lowly, the elderly, the humble with all great respect; bushes of flowers of Hope and Love in continuing to support and build up a better world during the dark time of the pandemic.

          Additionally, Mother Mary herself takes us to “the flower garden of Jerusalem” to encounter Jesus, her son, when we get lost in our lives ; she herself takes us to “the flower garden of Cana” to make a request to Jesus for a strong faith during our challenging lives; she herself takes us to “the flower garden of Passion” to live the full life of Jesus’disicple and to help, to protect and to comfort us when we face our daily harhships, difficulties, challenges; she herself takes us to “the flower garden of Calvary”, in which “the flower of Salvation” is now in full bloom on the Crucifix; and finally, she herself takes us to meet with Jesus and introduce us to Him : “These are my beloved sons and daughters.”

         Mother Mary, during May of this year, we would like to offer you such scented and splendid Spiritual Flowers picked up from “The New Flower Garden of Mankind”, which you have taught us how to cultivate and nourish through “Trusting Love, Self-denial Love, Serving Love, Self-giving Love” in unity with “the Great Love to lay down one’s life for the one he loves” of Jesus , Son of God and your son , to make it “The lush and fruitful Flower Forest of Salvation” for humankind.