As we ponder motherhood this weekend, I was thinking about the whole experience of giving birth. A woman carries within her a growing child for nine months. During that time she nurtures that child, loves that child and ultimately brings that child to birth. There is no experience in which two human beings are that intimate, that close, that - at one- as pregnancy. That is obviously why birth, though painful, is so exultant; and why miscarriage and still birth are so devastating. Two as one takes on a whole new meaning.

These are the reflections that came to me as I pondered the words of today’s Gospel from St. John: Remain in me as I remain you. As the Father has loved me so I love you. It is that same kind of intimacy that God desires with us. The intimacy of a mother who carries a child within the womb for nine months; an intimacy greater even than marriage. It is an intimacy that even those of us who are not mothers can understand but never experience.

We have been celebrating First Communion these past couple of weekend and what I always tell these children is that Jesus not only wants to be with them He wants to be inside them and stay close to them all the days of their lives. That is the mystery of God’s love.

As our second reading today from St. John’s Letter says, the wonder is not that we have loved God but that God has loved us from the very beginning of our lives and draws us into the intimacy of His love; the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As we gather tomorrow (today) with those we love and feel the warmth and tenderness of being together, let’s remember that that is only a fraction of the love God wants to offer us.

Remain in me as remain in you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you!