Wednesday May 18, 2022

Wednesday of 5th Week in Easter

 

One in the True Vine — Factions in the Church

            Implanted by baptism in Christ, the true vine, and therefore, by vocation and by our being Christians, we are called to be one in him, however we often fall apart into factions because of our background of land and culture, regionalisms and differences of language, social origins and classes, conservatives against progressives. So it was in the early Church: Christians discriminated because of their pagan origins, different parties even among those of Jewish extraction. Are we any better? No wonder that we bear little fruit… Let the Lord prune and purify us and unite us all in Christ as branches on the same vine.

 

First Reading: Acts 15:1-9 

It wasn’t long before some Jews showed up from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised: “If you’re not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion, you can’t be saved.” Paul and Barnabas were up on their feet at once in fierce protest. The church decided to resolve the matter by sending Paul, Barnabas, and a few others to put it before the apostles and leaders in Jerusalem.

After they were sent off and on their way, they told everyone they met as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria about the breakthrough to the non-Jewish outsiders. Everyone who heard the news cheered—it was terrific news!

 When they got to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were graciously received by the whole church, including the apostles and leaders. They reported on their recent journey and how God had used them to open things up to the outsiders. Some Pharisees stood up to say their piece. They had become believers, but continued to hold to the hard party line of the Pharisees. “You have to circumcise the pagan converts,” they said. “You must make them keep the Law of Moses.”

The apostles and leaders called a special meeting to consider the matter. The arguments went on and on, back and forth, getting more and more heated. Then Peter took the floor: “Friends, you well know that from early on God made it quite plain that he wanted the pagans to hear the Message of this good news and embrace it—and not in any secondhand or roundabout way, but firsthand, straight from my mouth. And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him.

 

Gospel: John 15:1-8

“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

 

Prayer

Lord our God, loving Father,
you have given us your Son, Jesus Christ,
as the true vine of life
and our source of strength.
Help us to live his life
as living branches attached to the vine,
and to bear plenty of fruits
of justice, goodness and love.
Let our union with him become visible
in our openness to one another
and in our unity as brothers and sisters,
that he may be visibly present among us,
now and for ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

18 May 2022
John 15:1-8
Abide in Me

We begin the reading from chapter 15 of the Gospel of John. It will accompany us until next Monday. In this chapter there is an important word: “remain”. Today the evangelist highlights one of the meanings he gives to this verb: TO ABIDE or to be united to Jesus as the branches to the vine.

TO ABIDE in Jesus means a deep communion with Jesus. “I am the true vine…” This is yet another of Jesus’ “I am….” statements in the Gospel. His use of the image of the vine was a common image for God in the Jewish tradition. Jesus tailored the image to suit his purposes and added an extension to it: “… my Father is the landholder – the vine-dresser.” Jesus uses the imagery to explain further the activity of the Father and the vine-dresser’s relationship with the branches: he “cuts off” branches that bear no fruit, while those that bear fruit are “cut clean.”

In the foot washing scene [13:10], Jesus had already said of the disciples that they were already cleansed – cut clean with the word that Jesus had spoken. The branch united to life “bears much fruit”, but if separated from the vine, it dries up, it is sterile.

Jesus calls on us to maintain that deep relationship with him – Like good friends. The vine is generally not a single branch, but several, and the same sap of the vine nourishes all the branches and keeps them united to the vine and to each other. The united branches express the vitality of the vine. Jesus is the vine, and when we remain united to the Lord and to one another, express the vitality of the Church. It is the Spirit of Jesus that runs through all of us and unites us all. The only reason we come together as a family before the Table of the Lord is that we are in blood-relation! We share the blood of Christ – the life of Christ.

When we allow the Word of God to prune and purify our lives, the Word would teach us to appreciate and value others, accept one another with mercy and understanding. These are the fruits we will bear when we remain united to Jesus. Then we can say like St. Paul: “I live, but not I, it is Christ who lives in me”.

Our desires determine where we direct our energies and our actions become persistent. Jesus wants us to focus our desires to be conforming to his Word. When we are focussed on communion, love and life in God, “ask for what you want and it will happen.”

Do I maintain that deep relationship with Jesus and with my brothers and sisters that allows me to bear fruits of love? How do I express my love to those around me?

 

Video available on YouTube:Abide in Me