Thank you Father Tobin for asking me to share some of my reflections on motherhood. To be a mother or father is the greatest gift any of us have ever been given. Mothers, we are privileged to have given birth and together with adoptive and foster mothers to have nurtured that life once born. How awesome to share in God's creative process! Never in my life have I felt closer to God than when giving birth to one of my four children or presiding at what I thought might be their death.

So unique a role is motherhood that the Church in her wisdom, chose motherhood as a metaphor for how we are to understand and regard the Church-Holy Mother--Mother who gives life to her children--Mother who prepares throughout the year to give birth to new children through baptism at the Easter Vigil and Mother who annually celebrates that birth and nurtures that life. Even though the church is comprised of human beings who on occasion hurt us or disappoint us, (much like our own mothers), in her perfection Holy Mother is there to hold our hands, and like the second reading today reminds us, to wipe away our tears and to be the presence of God in our lives. It is Holy Mother Church who celebrates our moments of growth throughout our lives and through the sacraments. And it is Holy Mother who presides at our deaths and our burials. It is she who teaches us what it means to live the paschal mystery-to journey into Christ's life, death and resurrection. It is Holy Mother Church who teaches us what it means that God is with us, through all the struggles of life.

There is a scene in Mel Gibson's movie, the Passion of the Christ, where Mary can hardly bear the pain and suffering of her child. She wants to turn away-to run far from his pain. And then she remembers Jesus as a small child. She remembers him falling down and scratching his knee. He begins to cry and she runs to him, consoles him and says to him, "I am here." In this most painful moment of her son's ordeal, rather than turn away she runs to him and again says those words that so sting her heart: "I AM HERE." Words that a mother speaks to her child in pain--words that God speaks to his children when all is lost. Words that every mother in this assembly has spoken to her child at one time or another in their very fragile lives.

Our family had just experienced a terrible year. We were devastated that our son was diagnosed with a horrible, debilitating disease that would impact the rest of his life. Our oldest daughter miscarried after trying so hard to conceive. Months later she conceived again. We were thrilled. Then came the call. It looked as though she would lose this child too. It was the proverbial straw for me. Despair was creeping in. We were celebrating a parish reconciliation service. I sat in the corner of the church, desperately needing to be alone with my grief. I was so angry with God. Through muffled tears all I could say was, " Where are you God, where have you been?" A woman I didn't even know came from behind. She sat down beside me and put her hands on my shoulder. She said absolutely nothing. It is what she did. She held me in my grief. In that moment, I heard God's word, "You wonder where I am? I am sitting right beside you."

God loves us and is with us through Holy Mother Church, through his sacraments and through his people. My daughter did not lose her baby that day and today we have the precious gift of baby Patrick, our first grandson. I often wonder how mothers who do not have the gift of faith endure the struggles of parenthood. God truly walks with us in this life's journey.

God invites us to experience what he experiences when his children suffer. God invites us to appreciate his own sorrow when his children are broken in body, soul and spirit and when they turn away from him. He asks us to be his consoling presence to those who similarly suffer. We sometimes forget that God's anxiety for our children is deeper than our own. Theologian Ronald Rohlheiser tells us, "God, also worries and cries tears of solicitousness, trying to awaken love. Our children can walk away, but there is always another parent from whom they can never walk away-the parent they carry inside."

We bemoan the fact that our adult children don't always follow the script we wrote for them. Mine didn't. I love the story of the young adult child whose mother complained about him not going to church anymore. "I didn't ask to be baptized," said the young man. " Well," said the mother, " you didn't ask to be potty trained either, but we thought that was a good idea too!"

Everyone remembers where they were on September 11. I will never forget. When I turned on the TV my horror was intensified as I saw the World Trade Center go up in flames. I knew that my daughter would be entering that building to catch a subway on her way to work. She lived fifty yards from the front door. It would be 2:30 in the afternoon before we knew she was alive. She lost her home, everything she owned and she suffered an ordeal few of us will ever have to suffer-but by the grace of God she is alive and we celebrate her life. A few days later the military escorted my husband and I, my daughter and her roommates back to her apartment to retrieve their important papers and any personal items they could carry. Words cannot express our emotion as we stood before that sacred human tomb at ground zero. To say that we were overwhelmed with gratitude that our daughter's life was spared would be a gross understatement!

In those 5 hours of unknowing I could not help but reflect on the great privilege it had been to be her mother. I became acutely aware of all the mothers who would not receive the good news we received that day. I became acutely aware of all the mothers whose children preceded them in death. You are the ones we honor today. There is no heart as pierced as the heart of a mother who has lost a child. There is a special place in God's heart for you. Such a loss is the greatest cross of motherhood.

We salute you who are single mothers and you who are the mothers of special needs children. You have given up your lives and often your dreams to raise your children against great odds. You put the needs of your children first. You are the compassionate face of Christ to your children. We honor you this day.

We salute you who have longed for a child only to experience the heartbreak of miscarriage. You have not only suffered the loss of your baby, but also the well meaning dismissal of your pain by family and friends who say, "Its OK, you'll have another child. You can try again later," while the grief over the loss of so precious a life still looms large in your hearts. We honor you this day.

We salute you would-be mothers who have so desperately longed for a child but were never able to conceive. You are so near and dear to the pierced heart of Christ. We honor you this day as well.

We similarly pray for everyone in this gathering who grieves the loss of their mother on this day we honor them. God is with you in your grief.

To be a mother is a share in God's life. To be a mother is to share in the exhilaration God feels in the joys of his children and the tremendous sorrow he feels when we are in pain. To be a mother is to love with a sacrificial love and to understand the unconditional love God has for us and that he never, ever gives up on us.

Many of you are just beginning your lives as mothers. You have many joys as well of struggles ahead of you. There is nothing more precious than to have your six year old take your hand, look adoringly into your eyes and tell you that you are the most wonderful parent in the world for loving him enough to take him to see Mickey Mouse! Surely no other parent loved their child as much! Similarly, there is nothing more precious than to hold that same child in your arms twenty years later as he suffered incredible pain and to tell that child that if you could give your life to ease that pain you would, and then to have your child once again look in your eyes and say, "Mom, don't feel badly for me, no matter what, I have been given the greatest gift of all, the gift of life. And Mom, please don't worry about me. God is with me in this."

Nothing has afforded me the privilege of living the paschal mystery as being mother to Elizabeth, Rob, Joey, and Katie and grandmother to Patrick and the future miss Ella that we now await. To be a mother is to understand exactly what Jesus meant when he tells us in today's gospel, "Love one another as I have loved you." "How much do I love you?" he asks us. This much!!!! Then he stretched out his arms and he died.