5th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B – 2009
Acts 9:26-31; I John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8
Jesus obviously lived in an agricultural society because of the many agricultural images he used in his parables. He spoke of the Word of God in terms of a farmer sowing seed. He spoke of the grain of wheat dying to produce much fruit. He spoke of heaven in images of a vineyard. These timeless images can speak to every generation because they all have to with the basic human necessity of food. We all need food and at least have some idea that food comes from farms. Today Jesus gives us the image of the vine and the branches.
I see three very important lessons we can learn from the teaching Jesus gives us today. First of all, the vine and the branches remind us of the importance of “cleaning up our act.” Anyone who has ever worked with plants knows that in order to help the plant grow more fully it needs pruning. The dead branches need to be cut away completely in order to make room for the new living branches. The dead branches in our life are the things that are obstacles to our faith and anything that is not of faith, like prejudice and hatred, or dependence on things that are not of God. We may also have bad habits like excessive eating . . . smoking . . . vulgar language . . . a poor attitude . . . or laziness . . . These are like the unruly parts of our life that need to be pruned away in order that good faith can grow.
The living branches also sometimes need to be pruned, taking away the diseased parts, taking away the unruly parts, to let the healthy parts grow to their fullness and beauty. The diseased part of our faith is our sin. The Sacrament of Reconciliation prunes away the diseased and dead parts of our life caused by sin, making room for the good branches to grow.
Secondly, the vine and the branches is an important image because it tells us also of the importance of remaining connected to the source of our faith, Jesus Christ. Just as a good branch that is cut away from the vine will shrivel up and die, so too will our faith shrivel up and die if we become cut off from Christ. This means that if we don’t stay connected to Jesus through prayer, through celebrating the sacraments, through worshipping regularly as a community, our faith will shrivel up and die. Without Christ as the source of nourishment we will not have life.
I have seen many people who have been torn away from their faith by the words and actions of others. We probably all know someone that is separated from God. Now I am not talking about those who have left the Catholic Church and are active members in another Christian church. These people are connected to the same vine, but are merely a different branch. If they are truly practicing their newfound faith, then they are connected to the same source of faith, Jesus Christ.
Rather, I am talking about those many people who say they believe in God, but do not belong to any faith community. They are the ones whose faith may shrivel up and die. They are the ones who need to be brought back to the vine. These people need to be reconnected to the community of believers, just like a branch can be grafted back onto a vine. This takes a great deal of care and patience but in time that branch will once again bear fruit. Similarly, to bring a person back to faith requires a great deal of care and patience. The wound that separated them often needs to be healed, and they need the extra nourishment that only love can give.
The importance of staying connected to community is also illustrated by the vine and the branches. A single grape vine will begin to sag under the weight of the grapes. But the vines tend to grow together and intertwine, making a web of branches which strengthens the entire plant so that it doesn’t break under the weight of the grapes.  The same can be said of community. When we are interconnected with one another, and life gives us challenges and obstacles, we will be strengthened by one another so that the weight of life’s difficulties doesn’t tear us down.
As an interwoven community we also have those who cannot come to church because of age, or disability. They too need to be cared for and nurtured. This is where we can help. By our staying connected to the vine, we can branch out to these people by visiting them and bringing them our hope and love. We can pray with them. We can talk faith with them. We can even bring them the Eucharist, the greatest source of nourishment that Catholics have.
The third lesson of the vine and branches is that Christ expects us to bear good fruit. A lived faith, by its very nature produces the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control. In the end, as Jesus says, there will be a great harvest in which we are expected to present the fruits of our faith. If we have produced nothing, we will be tossed aside like the dead barren branches and thrown into the fire. To bear fruit is simply to live as Christ told us in the first letter of John, “Little children, let us love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it.” What John is saying is that our faith cannot just be words. Our faith, in order for it to be living and have effect in our world, needs to be a faith of action and truth. We need to work towards spreading our faith through action and Christian service. We need to help others grow in their faith by loving them and encouraging them to also share their faith with others.
Shared faith grows, like a grape-vine. Living faith produces fruit in abundant. Jesus, the vine, is the source of life and faith for us, the branches. So share your faith, nurture your faith, let your faith grow, and you will bear fruit abundantly.
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.