There’s a story about the mother of Pope John XXIII. She was an elderly lady, a simple and hard-working woman who lived in poverty all her life. Shortly after her son became Pope in the late 1950s she came to Rome to visit him. She watched as important dignitaries approached him, and how each would bow and kiss his papal ring, acknowledging his spiritual authority. When it was her turn, she too knelt down before her son and kissed his ring. Then she held out to him her hand, the one with the wedding ring that she had worn for so long. And she said, “Now son, you kiss this ring. Because if it were not for this ring, you would not have that ring.”