Living in Christ And Being Fruitful

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter B

I once heard Bishop Robert Barron while he was still rector of Mundelein Seminary speaking about an inter-seminary basketball tournament held each year. One year a bishop celebrated the opening Mass for all the seminarians from across the United States. In his homily he spoke to the seminarians saying that although they had never met before, although they were virtual strangers to each other, coming from the all over the country, they had something fundamental in common. They each knew the most important thing about each other, despite never having met before. They each held Someone in common. They each knew Jesus Christ. This meant that they were not strangers to each other. There was a profound connection between them. The same is true for us here at Mass. We are profoundly connected to each other because we hold Jesus Christ in common.

In today's Gospel Jesus says the same thing using the image of the Vine and the Branches. The image of the vine and the branches would have been a very graphic and powerful one for the people of Jesus day. They all would have been familiar with the vine which produces grapes from which wine is made. Many of them would have had vines in their own gardens, or at least would have seen them at every corner in their villages and towns.

So, in your mind's eye, imagine a vine, growing strongly, abundantly leafy, drooping with bunches of grapes. You will know that there is a central vine stock arising out of the soil and from which the branches grow. The branches of a vine have an intimate relationship with the vine, depending on it at all times and forming one living organism with it.

These branches are pruned so that each year they may produce good grapes. Branches which produce poor fruit or no fruit at all are cut off completely and burned or turned into compost. This is the image that Jesus uses to describe how he wants us to be connected to him.

Jesus tells us, his followers that he is the true vine, the real vine, and that they are the branches whose task is to bear fruit by sharing his life. This image of the vine, shows the intimate unity and closeness between Jesus and his disciples.

What practical lessons can we take from this image of the vine and the branches. The first and most important thing is the unity between the vine and the branches. The branches cannot exist apart from the vine stock. If they separate themselves from the vine stock, they wither and die. From the vine stock they receive nourishment and strength.

It is the same for us. Apart from Jesus we cannot exist as Christians. We need to be continually nourished by time spent with Jesus, and by the divine life he give us in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

The unity of the vine and branches speaks of the close personal union that is called for between Jesus and his followers. Every one of us is called to live in a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ.

There is a clear link between the second reading from the First Letter of St John and the Gospel - both speak of the importance of the close personal union between Jesus and us. Both speak of this in terms of “living in God" and "God living in us", or us "remaining in Jesus" and "his word remaining in us".

I remember when I was in the seminary, one of the new deacons preached on the connection and direct relationship necessary between us and Christ. He caused a bit of a stir by using the analogy of a kiss between lovers. Remember this was in a seminary! He said that lovers cannot kiss by proxy. No one else can take the place of one of the lovers in a kiss between them. It is an intimate sharing between two people and it does not allow for any substitutions.

The same is with a relationship with Jesus. It must involve us personally. It cannot be done through someone else - not our parents, brothers, sisters, fiancé, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or husband. It has to be US!

We all should be able to say, with St Paul, that "nothing will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him."

Isn't it true that the one of the greatest challenges we face as a Church is that too many people are sacramentalised without having been evangelised? They have received the sacraments without having entered into a life-changing personal relationship with Christ. As such, the sacraments, which are meant to be encounters with the person of Christ in which we are given the different graces we need, have yet to bear fruit in their lives.

Secondly, not only can the branches not live if they are not attached to the vine, they cannot bear fruit. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. We cannot produce the fruit that God expects from us, if we are not connected to Jesus, the vine. We are called to live as disciples of Jesus in the daily circumstances of our lives, in our families and communities. We are to be a blessing to other people, a presence which brings the compassion and the love of Christ to others. And as St John in the second readings says, our love must be more than words or mere talk; it must be something real and active.

Jesus says that we are to remain in him and he in us. Abiding in Jesus includes being part of the life of the Church, committed to the daily and weekly fellowship of his people, in mutual support, in prayer, in commor worship, in the sacramental life, in study and not least, in work for the Gospel in the world. In every Eucharistic celebration we are drawn into that intimate communion both with Jesus himself, and with each other, at his altar.

We see a picture of this common life in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Reading between the lines, we see that there was a real sense of communion, connection and communication between the disciples. As a community they were afraid of Saul, but once Barnabas had spoken for Saul, Saul was accepted. There is this beautiful phrase describing Paul's integration with the community of disciples: “he went in and out among them.' "

There are two other meanings of the vine image that we must consider.

One is the matter of pruning so that the branches may bear fruit. Jesus speaks of his Word pruning his disciples. We are pruned by our reading and praying over the Scriptures where we are challenged and inspired to be the people God has called us to be. Also, in our daily lives with God, we are pruned by the events which he allows us to experience in order that we might become stronger and more faithful followers of Jesus. We need to consider that pruning may well involve suffering and loss.

The last aspect that we must consider is that branches that give no fruit are cut off from the vine and burned. The Gospels often give warnings of this kind. There is the possibility that we could separate ourselves from the vine out of pride or arrogance, believing that we can save ourselves or live comfortably enough without God in our lives; or that we could separate ourselves from God through laziness, selfishness and lack of love. By saying these terrible possibilities, the intention is not that we become paralysed with fear, but rather that we sit up and take notice - that we realise that this is serious business.

Today we are invited into a deep connection with Jesus and we are challenged to do our part to nurture the intimate relationship between ourselves and him. Be branches of the vine that bear abundant fruit.