My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!
Just this Wednesday, we did some cleaning and pruning at our garden in St. Ann Church. There were some of us who kindly volunteered to help accomplish it. Our Gospel this weekend is a timely reminder, as Jesus said, “I am the true vine and my Father is the winegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.” For us, the image of the vine and the branches might not say much since we do not see vineyards everyday, ha ha ha just joking – we see tons of vineyards here – everywhere, it is part of the landscape. Some of the owners that I knew shared with me that it is not easy to cultivate vines that bears plenty of grapes. Much pruning is necessary to cut away fruitless branches so that they will not drain away the strength of the plant.
Jesus knew very well what He was talking about in our Gospel—John 15: 1-8 (Parable of the Vine and the Branches). This reading is both threatening as well as encouraging. It is speaking as if we are like branches that do not bring any fruit, when we are indifferent and don’t care about our spiritual life and do not practice what God tells us. It is threatening if we think we could live a life disconnected from Jesus, from His Church and from the sacraments. But the parable is encouraging as long as we try all we can to be united with Jesus, with His Church and treasure the sacraments. It encourages us to seek this unity especially in the Eucharist where the graces and blessings – the life-giving “sap”, to use the image of the vine – flow from Jesus Christ into our very being. It encourages us to seek daily spiritual nourishment by reading the Scriptures as Jesus said, “we do not live from bread alone but from every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
AMEN
God Loves You!
~ Fr. NEIL