This Mother’s Day is a perfect day for us to reflect upon mothers and upon God. We learn a great deal about God through our mothers...not only through their words but their maternal instinct or impulse to nurture tells us much about God. Four months ago I came across some thought provoking 10 minute videos that give some great insight into Jesus and how he invites us to open our eyes to the awareness that God is at work in our world right now. The plan today was to watch one of these videos in place of a homily. The video is entitle “She” and it offers some inspired and challenging thoughts on motherhood and on God. In setting this up, we were able to produce a great picture but the sound here in the church was inadequate - nothing worse than sitting through 10 minutes and not being able to clearly hear the message. So unfortunately no video today - but most of us remember a photograph some 40 years ago that touched the heart of a divided city.

In 1968, a fire tore through a housing development in Boston. Firefighter Bill Carroll crawled on his stomach through the thick smoke to find Evangeline, a baby trapped inside one of the units. He found the infant unconscious in her crib. He grabbed her and breathed life into her as he ran from the apartment. A newspaper photograph captured the image: a white firefighter from South Boston with his lips pressed to the mouth of a black baby from a housing development, at a time when riots sparked by racial tensions were burning down American cities.

Bill Carroll remained a firefighter for another 34 years. Evangeline grew up, lost her family to drugs and illness, became a nursing and teaching assistant, and raised a family of her own. But throughout her life, she wanted to meet the man in the photograph - the firefighter who saved her life - to say thanks. After many frustrating attempts over the years, she had all but given up. Then she heard about a Boston firefighter who was killed in the crash of his fire truck. Evangeline remembers thinking that this could have been the firefighter who saved her life. “I did not want to leave this earth without saying ‘thank you’. My life would be incomplete.”

With the help of a Boston newspaper reporter, she finally tracked down Bill Carroll. The two actually met this spring at the site of the fire where Bill Carroll refused to let her die. “You’ve grown a lot since the last time I saw you,” the retired firefighter beamed. “Thank you so much for remembering me.”

“Thank you so much,” Evangeline said softly, “if it had not been for you, I would not be here.” The two hugged like long lost friends. Evangeline said, “I thought, oh, forget it. He probably doesn’t remember. He’s not interested.” But nothing could be further from the truth. “Evangeline Harper,” Bill said, “I’ll never forget your name if I live to be 100 years old.” Their friendship continues and grows. Bill has become the new grandpa for Evangeline’s 6 year old son Reginald. “Yah, we did a good thing that day,” Bill said.

We are connected to one another through Christ and in Christ. The story of Bill Carroll and evangeline Harper mirrors that connection: We are branches of the same vine, a vine that is the source of nurture and support in the life and love of God.

This bond of life and love is how Jesus wanted it to be between him and his disciples and with us today. We should not wait for danger to threaten before we experience this reality - this bond of love and life should be the climate of our everyday lives. The human person needs a supportive community. There is much loneliness in the world. The greatest need of all is the need to be loved. But often we pass one another by without the slightest sign of recognition. People can even come to church and leave again without meeting anyone... isn’t that right?

The world is crying out for community. There should be no such thing as a solitary Christian. The fruit which Christ desires from us is primarily that of unity among ourselves. By this all will know that we are living branches of the Vine - by the bond that exists between us and the care we show for one another. That bond of life and love is expressed most fully in a mother’s bond with her child. The prophet Isaiah used this powerful image when talking to his people who are wondering if they even had a future. They were refugees: disillusioned, filled with despair, they had no hope. Of all the images Isaiah could use he says to them, “Have you ever seen a mother comfort a child? Well that is what God is like. And that is what God is going to do for you.”

So on this Mother’s Day, when you see a woman doing her mother thing, when a woman’s heart breaks for her children, she is taping into the very nature of who God is and what God is like. May we give thanks for the gift of our mothers - for they truly help us to understand who God is and what God is like and how we are to live.