Homily for the 5th Sunday of the Easter Season, April 28, 2024. Gospel of St. John 15:1-8. Theme: Living as Fruitful Branches of Christ the Vine
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that just as branches cannot have life in them and bear fruit apart from the vine, so we cannot accomplish anything, that is anything of real eternal value, unless we are connected to him. He spoke these words at the Last Supper, knowing full well that he was about to leave this world and pass on his mission to his disciples and that includes us. This mission was first and foremost all about bringing God's tangible love into the world, a love that is outward reaching and sacrificial, a love that is forgiving and unifying, a love that heals wounds and gives life.
This kind of love is what Jesus calls “fruit” in today’s parable.
It’s the kind of love that we are supposed to bear as disciples and extensions of Christ in the world. But, Jesus cautions us that in order to keep loving in this way we must draw our power from him, just as branches draw their sustenance from the vine. So, at the Last Supper, in addition to speaking this parable, he also spoke of three ways in which we can abide in him, remain connected to him, and draw from him as from a powersource. These ways are the Word of God, the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit.
The first way is through his Word. He told us that if his Word becomes part of us, that is if we obey it and put it into practice, then he will come to dwell within us. He also said that his Word prunes us, which means that it helps us identify and cut away the dead branches of sin in our lives and trim back any growth of selfishness that gets in the way of our connection to the Vine. For these reasons Pope Francis often says that it’s a good idea for us to have the Word of God handy, perhaps by carrying a small pocket New Testament with us or downloading it into our phones. This makes it easier to reflect on it when we have some free time in our day, allowing the Word to repeatedly fall upon our hearts and soften them, just as rain beats down on the earth making it more fertile ground, These showers of the Word will enable the seeds of God’s love that he has planted within us to sprout and grow.
The second way we remain connected to Jesus is through the Eucharist. Just as a vine provides its branches with life-giving sap so Jesus gives us a share in his divine life through the Eucharist. He emphatically declared that if we eat his Flesh and drink his Blood then the divine life that is in him will flow into us and, by being infused with this divine life, we become one with him, sharing a kind of supernatural DNA with him, so to speak. Through this Eucharistic relationship we become stronger and healthier branches of Christ the Vine, enabling us to produce a more fruitful harvest of love in our lives. There’s no better way to abide in Christ than by receiving him in Holy Communion often, even daily if our schedules allow, because the more we consume his Body and Blood with mindfulness and devotion, and not simply out of habit or routine, the more easily and more quickly we can become like him.
The third way we abide with Jesus is through the Holy Spirit who is our Bond of Connection with him. Today’s second reading makes reference to this truth, when it says that the Spirit dwelling in us is the proof that we are linked with Christ. In addition to this, it’s the Holy Spirit who makes the other two ways of connecting with Christ possible. For he is the one and same Spirit who makes the Scriptures jump off the page and come alive for us so that Christ can dwell by faith in our hearts. And he is the one and same Spirit who transforms the bread and wine at Mass into the Body and Blood of Christ so that Jesus can live in us and we in him. I think this tells us how important it is to develop a vibrant and personal devotion to the Holy Spirit in order to become more aware of his Presence within us as he helps us to grow and develop as branches of Jesus that bear the fruit of love.
Today’s Gospel of the vine and branches reminds us that we aren’t meant to have a kind of “Jesus & Me Only” spirituality. In other words, as Christians we don't isolate our personal relationship with Christ from our relationships with others; we don’t seek union with Jesus just for ourselves and for our own personal good. We strive to deepen our relationship with Christ and bear his fruit of love because others in our lives and those around us need us to do so; because the world itself desperately needs us to do so. This is our common vocation, our common mission as Christians!
And you know, when you think about it, this parable describes a mutual relationship between Jesus and all of us who form his branches. We’re all supposed to work together to bear this crop of love. There are billions of Christians on planet Earth today, about 32% of the world population actually. Now, imagine if we each took our mission to bear this fruit seriously, or if at least a good number of us did so. Imagine the potential that this combined effect could have across the entire globe!
Now to some this might sound like an impossible dream but we have solid proof that it’s not. Just look at what happened 2,000 years ago in Palestine when 12 ordinary socially-insignificant Jewish men, who were the first to hear today’s parable, chose to take it to heart and put it into practice. Their decision to do so changed the very trajectory of human history and the world has never been the same since, because nothing, nothing whatsoever, is impossible with God!
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