When Father Brian asked me, after Mass one Sunday, several months ago, if I would be willing to preach this weekend, I immediately said, “Yes,” and then all the way home was worried. I thought to myself, “Oh, my. What if the readings don’t work? What if they are not related to the theme of love or the theme of relationship or something about mothers and women?” Well, I ran home. I opened the lectionary and I got really lucky because you couldn’t have a better gospel or even the second reading where St. John just simply says, “Love one another.” Got it? “Love one another.” And then I had a bonus because Father Brian said, “Go ahead and choose a different first reading if you’d like to.” So, you couldn’t have a better place to turn than to that beautiful psalm 139. Those, then, compile the readings today. And they really do hit the kernal and the core of the Christian message and what it’s about. They talk about three themes. So we will explore each one, just a little bit.

That first theme is the most compelling and important message of Scripture, that this is about a God who loves us, and loves us unconditionally, no strings attached, no matter what, not IF we’re good, if we’re lucky, if we do wonderful things, if we make it, if we’re successful. This is a God who said, “I love you no matter what. I claim you as mine. Be with me.” You go to Psalm 139 and the author is eloquent in how it’s expressed, saying “You understood my thoughts. You knew every detail of my life before I was born. You knit my inmost being in my mother’s womb. You knew me through and through. You know my heart and its ways. And you hold me and you love me and you walk with me, and you know my ways.”

And then the Gospel, the ultimate story of a God who talks about loving relationships and answers the question, “But how do I know I’m loved? Where do I know I’m loved?” And he does it in that second theme. The second theme is about Jesus himself who starts with a very simple story. My father is the vine grower. I am the vine. You are the branches. It’s about love and loving relationships and growing in that love that really sustains you. And, in that story, you really see a Jesus who is calling us to love and asking us to be remembering that there are times that are tough, that you have to prune things away. This is a Jesus who loved when it was challenging, a Jesus who loved when he was with his friends and his disciples and working in his life in the day to day. And it’s about a Jesus who ultimately died on a cross to teach us first hand what it means to love unconditionally, no strings attached.

One of my favorite lines from the play, “Les Miserables,” goes like this: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” ....“To love another person is to see the face of God.” That’s what Jesus is talking about in that story of the vine grower and the vine. And it’s not unlike a relationship of a mother and a child. As a matter of fact, it’s very much like what a mother and a child experience. From the moment of birth, a mother believes and sees and knows that she is experiencing nothing but unconditional love for that child. And it is almost overwhelming, it is so powerful, so beautiful, so all filling. And you don’t ever imagine you can love like that again.

I remember when my husband and I were ready to give birth to our second child. Indeed, I was in labor. And we went to the bedroom to say goodbye to our little boy and to tell him that we would soon be bringing home his little sister. My husband stopped and he put his hand on the door and on my arm and he said, “I don’t think I can do this.” And I said, “What?” And he looked at me and he said, “I don’t think I can love another human being as much as our son. I don’t think I can do this.” And I remember in my labor, turning to him very politely, and saying, “It’s a little late.” And, as a matter of fact, the second our daughter was born we realized that love is not holding tight, is not little. It’s big. It allows you to grow and get bigger and more encompassing and that concept of unconditional love really does mean that, that it is bigger and bigger and more compelling as it goes on. And, with our children, in the happy times, the tender times, the moments of laughter, the moments of joy, trips to the park, Christmas, graduation, all those wonderful moments, we really know those moments of love. And we also know them in the challenging times, the times when it hurts, the times when it’s tough, the times when it’s hard.

A mother’s job and a father’s job is to give their children roots and wings. We spend those first years trying to ground them, as the vine grower, give them values, hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations. Teach them. Love them, And nurture them, and help prune things away. And, at some point, we have to let them try and give them wings. And our hope is that they don’t smack into a wall, but rather really, truly fly. And we have to hold our breath and hope.

And that’s where that third theme comes in: what it means to remain in love. Because it’s teaching that concept of remaining in love that draws the child, draws us back in. As a matter of fact, in that gospel reading (I never paid attention to it so much as this past week.) eight times, Jesus uses the phrase “Remain in me. I remain in you. Remain in my love. As the father loves you, remain in my love.” It’s about nourishing us on the vine, inviting us to remember what that is, to remain in God’s love. And how do we do that? What are some ways that we can experience remaining in God’s love? Thomas Keating, a great writer, once said that the chief thing that separates us from God is merely the thought that we are separated from God. So part of it is in recognizing that.

I work for the DeLaSalle Christian Brothers, and in our schools, all over the world, every day, every activity, every prayer, every class, we begin with the words, “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.” Wow! What would it be like if we really did remember that, that we are never outside of the Holy Presence of God? And then, recently, for me, I have found that I have taken a phrase and learned to turn it so that it makes better sense. The phrase is “There but for the grace of God go you or I.” We are always trying to hold off difficult times out there. But they come to all of us. And so, I have learned to take that concept of “remain in me” and change it to say, “There, with the grace of God, go I.” because God has never abandoned me. God has been there through and through, from the very beginning and will always be there, through and through. “Remain in my love.”

In closing, for this Mothers’ Day weekend, it’s not a bad reminder for mothers and fathers, men and women, for children, students, neighbors, friends, co-workers that every time we dare to love another person, we get a glimpse of what it means to see the face of God, to experience that loving presence of God always. A powerful image! This weekend, especially, for mothers, but true for all of us. St. Augustine, as Father Brian Timoney reminded us several weeks ago, said “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God.” And finally, toward the end of his life, C.S. Lewis once said in contemplating the moments where he thought about God in reflection, he said, “God, you were always there. It was you all along.” What a reminder to remain in God’s love. It was you all along. Remain in my love. Amen.