The moment we break the connection between earphones and phones, piece of equipment and basic supply of electricity, gas, water or sound, we automatically disconnect and become less effective. Disconnection also take place when we fail to pay the necessary bills or purchase data needed for connection. Christ in today’s liturgy makes us understand that when we disconnect from him, we can do nothing. However, the liturgy helps us understand better what can cause our disconnection from Christ and what can lead to our reconnection with Him. In the Gospel of last Sunday, Christ addressed himself as the good shepherd. Today, he is referring to himself as the true vine.
Put differently, He communicates the theme of Christian unity and the consequences of disconnection from Him, the true vine. Using the imagery of the true vine and the branches, Christ helps his disciples to understand the closeness of their relationship with him and the necessity to maintain it. In the same vein, he explains to us how our relationship should be with him. Reminding us, “… cut off from me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). The imagery of the vineyard is often used scripturally to define God’s abiding love for Israel and his too frequent disappointment of his people. Psalm 80:9-20 speaks of Israel as vine God uprooted from Egypt and planted in the promise land, after having cleared out other nations to give it space to grow. Therefore, Christ applied the image of the true vine to himself and his disciples are the fruit-producing branches.
He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit… the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (Jn 15:1-2,4). Abiding with Christ the true vine is a condition for producing fruits, not just fruit but good fruits. Certainly, there are many trees that produces different kinds of fruits, not all fruits are edible, some could be poisonous or harmful to us, they could be bitter or have sour taste. These fruits could mean vices such as bitterness, quarrel, anger, jealousy, backbiting etc. Invariably, bad fruits are sins that disconnect us from Christ. Bad fruits of these kinds make the community uninhabitable that is why Christ specified on bearing good fruits such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness… (Gal 5:22-23). He prunes the good ones to bear more fruits.
That is, our faith will be tested like that of St. Paul and the Apostles, but we must stick to Christ the true vine, because from him we have life. In the first reading, the Acts of the Apostles testifies to the abundance of spiritual fruits yielded by the Apostles because of their close bond with the risen Lord. The reading tells us how the Lord pruned the former Pharisee, Saul, the fanatic who had persecuted the church to produce fruit-bearing branch called Paul the zealous Apostle to the Gentiles, dedicated to the Gospel. He was initially considered as the bad fruit, which stem from the tree called ‘Saul’, his former identity which the disciples were afraid of.
The moment he disconnected from the old self and connected to Christ, he was pruned through various challenges and preferred to be called Paul. In his pruning, he was not accepted as one of the disciples until the intervention of Barnabas. Remembering the Saul that killed and persecuted the Christians, the disciples found it difficult to embrace/welcome him to the Christian community nor believe he was a disciple. Despite the misunderstanding, suspicions and difficulties, Paul remained with the true vine by developing a greater love for Jesus and his disciples. If the disciples in Jerusalem lacked a little in love, Paul added a little more love to make up for it. So it is with us, if someone hates or persecute us for who we are as Christians, we do not have to hate the person in return, but to add more love to make up to what the person is lacking.
St. John in the second reading tells us, “This is my commandment, that we should believe in the name of the Son (who is the true vine) and love one another just as he has commanded us” (1Jn 3:23). Only if we remain united to Christ, we will be able to obey God’s commandment of love. The lesson for today is clear, that when we are cut off from Christ, we become lifeless and practically can do nothing. A branch is useless and unproductive unless it is connected to the vine. Invariably, we are dependent on Christ and through sanctifying grace, we share in God’s own divine life. We will loose the privilege of sanctifying grace and be disconnected when we involve ourselves in grave sin. Hence, let us seek reconciliation in other to remain connected to Christ the true vine and bear good fruits. Peace be with you! Happy Sunday!
