My mother, Helen, loved to garden, and with her caring hands, every springtime she skillfully nurtured a new garden’s life to maturity and fruitfulness. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Mother’s Day is celebrated when it is: the season speaks so much to the nurturing gift that is particularly a mother’s.

My mother’s love extended well beyond the life she brought into this world. She welcomed not only my brothers, Lawrence and Robert, and me but also my adoptive brother, Joseph. I am so grateful to her for the gift of Joseph in our family. And I am likewise grateful to Sandi Davidson and those who assist her at Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in laboring so hard to make adoptions possible as a part of Pregnancy Help Services.

I recently was reminded of the preciousness of life and the special blessing of a mother’s love during a visit with Deacon Joseph Hieu Vinh and his daughter, Trang, while they were recovering at Vanderbilt Medical Center following the tragic accident at Immaculate Conception Church on Holy Saturday. When I entered Trang’s room, I was greeted by her mother, Lehang, whom we know affectionately as Cathy. She had not left her daughter’s side since the terrible accident, and I could see the exhaustion in her face from the suffering in which she had shared. But I also saw a mother’s tremendous love, which could never be exhausted in nurturing her child back to health.

I couldn’t help but think of Our Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross of her son and how she suffered with him for love of us. I was also reminded of the figure of Veronica, about whom we know so little except for her act of kindness to Our Lord that we celebrate in the Stations of the Cross. Just as Veronica was left with the sacred image of Our Lord’s face on the veil she had offered him, Cathy had also captured the image of Christ in her acts of motherly kindness. In our daily witness to life, isn’t that what we are all called to do?

It seems to me that the sacredness and dignity of human life is most evident in the vulnerability of the weak and suffering, who are therefore especially deserving of our care and protection. This is certainly true of life in the womb as well as the life of the elderly. Because of their frailty, society increasingly views them as a fiscal burden and advocates programs of veiled euthanasia.

Defending human dignity even entails defending the life of those whom we are most tempted to dismiss. I’ll never forget a specific moment during Pope John Paul II’s 1999 visit to St. Louis, which I helped coordinate. In that moment the Holy Father leaned over to Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and in his thick Polish accent said, “Show mercy for Mr. Mease.” The governor knew exactly what the pope was asking: on the day of the pope’s arrival, Darrell Mease had been scheduled for execution for a triple murder he had committed in 1988. But so that the execution would not coincide with the pope’s visit, it had been set to occur after his departure. At the pope’s request, however, Gov. Carnahan commuted the sentence to life in prison without parole. I remember clearly the governor’s saying, “How could I say no to the pope?”

I pray a similar miracle will occur here in Tennessee and that a son’s appeal to Governor Phil Bredesen for clemency on behalf of his mother will be granted. Gaile Owens, scheduled to be executed on Sept. 28, was convicted of the contract murder of her husband 25 years ago. After a long struggle to forgive his mother, her son is now leading the appeal for clemency. Following the example of John Paul II, I will make my own appeal to Gov. Bredesen and ask him to show mercy to Gaile Owens. I ask that you join me—for every life is precious, whether the life of a child in the womb or the life of a mother on death row.

On the last day of his visit to St. Louis, Pope John Paul II concluded his homily with these words, which I ask you to reflect on: “If you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace the truth—the truth revealed by God.” This is how mercy and love triumph.

Let me close by wishing a happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. May God bless you!