FR. BERBENA: This morning on this Mother's Day we have a special speaker, a guest speaker, to speak to us, Mary Ann Mattos, who is the vice principal at De La Salle High School. And I think, once again, to be open, once again, also to be attentive to her words, it's very important, I think, that we show that respect, of course, in honor to our mothers as we also as Christians honor the Virgin Mary as the model of a mother. But as we said at the beginning, not only for mothers and women, but for us men, too, we need those touches of caring for one another and loving one another. .

MOTHER'S DAY MEMORIES
May 10, 2009
by Mary Ann Mattos

When I first moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, I had the opportunity early in my freshman year of college to attend a retreat up in the Napa Valley. While I was born and raised in the big city of Los Angeles, my mom loved rose bushes, and she always kept a variety of roses in the garden, for which she pruned, and nurtured, and cared, and cut them. And we were all the 1 beneficiaries of those roses, and I loved them a lot.

So as we were traveling through the Napa Valley late that fall, I looked out the window and commented to my friends around me, "Wow! I have never, ever seen so many beautiful and thick rose bushes. Are we going past some rose nurseries?" At which they all laughed me, being the city kid that I was, and said, "Have you never seen a grapevine?" I was that weekend the brunt of lots of jokes, including the fact that I bought that those smudge heat pots that they put in the vineyards were there and designed to scare away the California moose. Boy, did I have a lot to learn about vines, and vineyards and their messages.

So as I reflect on this Gospel today, I smile as I think about what I have learned about vineyards, and about growth and the implications from this very reading. Indeed, in this Gospel Jesus gives us a very different image from the image last weekend of the Good Shepherd. Yet, it's an equally powerful image filled with wonderful things to teach us.

We are being called to be a church community of disciples that live, and grow and thrive by virtue of Christ, who is the ultimate vine. We are the branches that manifest that very love in community that Jesus presents to us, as the vine and the branches. Christ is the one who invites us into that loving relationship with a God who has always been there for us, and will continue to help us grow as long as we remain in that love. The Gospel tells us very clearly: By this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. And then he adds the punch line, the hook: Remain in Me as I remain in you, and whoever remains in Me and I in them will bear much fruit.

You know, we really only understand concepts through images and stories that we can later imprint upon our hearts and our souls. In the 16th Century, St. Teresa of Avila wrote a beautiful, beautiful prayer that describes such images in looking at Christ. And she says in that prayer: Christ has no body now but yours, no eyes, no ears on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which to see compassion on the earth; and yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.

A few of those images come to mind for me as I look at this very church community and how we participate to remain in that body and become part of that vine and the branches that we are. I think of just the past few months and all the work done to help the poor and the homeless, not just to provide places for them to sleep and nourishment and care, but of all the work that is done year in and year out by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. I think of Easter itself with thousands of people here at every Mass, crowds huge, and people coming in to celebrate not the death on a cross to have the final word, but the Resurrection and new life that really last has the last word. I think of a few weeks ago where at the 9:15 Mass as all the children were gathered around alter right here for the Eucharistic prayer a little child broke loose from her father and ran right up this aisle, screaming because her father was trying to catch her. And at that Mass, Father Tom Burns, who was the celebrant, turned to the father and said, "It's okay. She's welcome here," at which she stumbled to get up on this step and stood perfectly quiet, feeling accepted, and welcomed and watching what was going on, a celebration of Eucharist. And I think of just ten days ago the 66 confirmandi with their sponsors who all stood here, all of those teenagers in front of Father Brian, and the Bishop and their families, proclaiming to the Church and to the parish their commitment to journey in faith and to live a life committed to justice, and love and walking the walk. And finally, I think of the RCI newly baptized, who last week at every Mass spoke of the journey that they have been on, and being in a community where they have felt nurtured, and cared for and loved so that they can grow.

And then we have today, Mother's Day, one of the most cherished days of the year for women. You know, it's really not a stretch, as a woman, as a daughter, as a wife and as a mother, for me to think of my role as a nurturer, as one who is called on to give life, to bring life, and to bring love, and to want love in return.

In Isaiah, there's a beautiful image where God says that he loves the people as a mother loves the child in her womb from its earliest days. What a powerful image! And as women, we often see our role as caregivers, as life-givers, as those who feed, and nourish and embrace others. Like the vine, we hold our families in our arms, seeking to strengthen them, seeking to see the fruits of our labors. There are times that that vine needs pruning, and we do so with care, so that it is durable, and grows and lasts. And then there are some times that we have to supply the manure, the fertilizer of life. Sometimes it smells, sometimes it's hard, but we know that in that fertilizer of life how are families grow stronger and we grow closer to being connected to that very sturdy vine. As women, our arms are often there to share the love, provide the hugs, bandages, food, tender touch that our families need. And as mothers our prayer is that we will live long enough to see the very fruits of our labors of love all around us, and that our own children will have firm foundations, knowing that they are held strong and sturdy by that vine of our family love. And our hope and our prayer is that we too can be nourished every day of our life so that we can continue to provide that love for our families.

And so we look to that ultimate model, the model of a loving God, and we pay attention to how we are the eyes, and the ears, and the arms, and the feet that represent the Body of Christ here and now in our lives.

And so we ask the following prayer today for all women and for all mothers, a beautiful blessing prayer on this Mother's Day. And it reads like this:

Bless her with the strength of Your spirit, she who has taught her children how to stand, and how to walk. Bless her with the melody of Your love, she who has shared how to speak, how to sing and how to pray to You. Bless her with a place at Your eternal dinner table, she who has fed and nurtured the life that formed within her while still helpless but embraced in her love. And bless her today, now, in this lifetime with good things and health, with joy, with love and laughter, so that she can rejoice with family and friends. You know, I still never look at a vineyard without thinking of roses. And I never think of roses without thinking of my mom and all of the love and tender care that she brought to me in her lifetime. Amen.

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