I am the vine and you are the branches!

Homily for Easter – 5^th Sunday Year B 2015

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

Introduction

Last Sunday Jesus used the image of the shepherd’s care for his sheep, to teach that he the Good Shepherd loves his disciples.

Today he continues to teach a similar message, using another agricultural image, the vine, its branches and the vine grower.  Like rearing sheep, growing vines was and is still an important means of livelihood in Palestine, familiar to the Jews.

With this image of the vine, Jesus teaches three important relationships of love:

·        The relationship between God the Father and Jesus

·        The relationship between Jesus and his disciples

·        The relationship between the disciples and the Father, which completes the cycle.

Scripture and Theology

And so, when Jesus announces: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower,” he is showing that what he does and what he teaches, do not come from his own authority.  The Father has sent him; the Father continues to guide him; the Father continues to tell him what to say and do.

This image of God as the vine grower was used already in the Old Testament.  The Prophets, especially Jeremiah and Isaiah lamented that the vine, Israel, had failed to provide good fruit to the vine grower, God.  Instead, by their sinfulness they were producing sour grapes.  With Jesus as the vine, there is hope that this time round, good fruit will be produced, because Jesus and the Father are close and united to each other.

Secondly, Jesus also announces, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” thus speaking about the relationship between him and the disciples.  Jesus compares himself to the main stalk of the vine and the disciples to the branches attached to it.  He is the part of the plant that goes down to the roots and is anchored in the soil; he is the part to whom all the branches are attached and from whom they draw their nutrition and life.  Just like the branches must remain attached to the main stalk of the vine to continue receiving nourishment and producing fruit, so the disciple must remain attached to Jesus to be fruitful.

The third relationship is that between the disciples and the Father.  Jesus says of his Father: “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  The Father’s job is to prune the branches.  When we prune flowers in our gardens, we cut off unwanted shoots and leaves.  Pruning a plant might be considered an assault on the plant, cutting off some of its parts.  The wine growers pruned the vines especially in the first few years to allow them to spread out and produce better fruit; and every year they continued to prune them.

As pruning, though painful, is necessary for the growth of the plant, so suffering if part of the Christian’s life.  Remember that Jesus spoke these words about pruning at the Last Supper, just before he suffered and died.  Moreover, he had already warned the disciples that they too would have to suffer.  The suffering of Jesus on the cross brings us salvation.  Our daily suffering in some small way also contributes to our own salvation and that of others.  When the Father, hrough the teaching of Christ, through his graces, prunes us by separating them from sinful ways and patterns, that is often painful. But it also makes us fruitful.

Christian Life

Because we don’t grow vines in South East Louisiana, the message of this image might be lost on us.

But we have our own images that can teach us more or less the same message.

·        Think of the wires bringing electricity, the internet and cable into our house and the further connections within the house.  Like the branches need to connect to the vine for nourishment and life, our house must be connected to the main supply, if we are to have any electricity, internet and cable.  When we don’t pay the bill, the company cuts the connection and we are plunged in darkness.   Similarly, when we don’t pay attention to Jesus’ teaching in his Word and the Sacraments, we are plunged in darkness.

·        But perhaps the image most similar to the vine is the intimate relationship between mother and child.  Since Mother’s Day is coming up next week, let’s examine how similar the bond between mother and child, is to the bond between us and God.

The first lesson is that dependence on God.  Like the vine depends on the vine grower and the branches depend on the vine, a baby must depend on the mother for nourishment.  While still in the womb, the baby draws nourishment from the mother through the umbilical cord.  Outside the womb, the baby continues to receive nourishment through nursing for several months.  This bond, between mother and child, often continues even into adult life.

I live with two priests who are in their eighties, including Archbishop Hughes.  I am always amazed at how they still talk so fondly of their mothers.  Mother taught me this, mother said this, mother did this for me.  Sixty, seventy, eighty years later, they still remember what their mothers did for them.  The maternal bond between mother and child is that strong.

Can the bond between us and God be that strong?  Our bond with the Lord is strong if we regularly maintain that relationship.  One of the things to keep our relationship strong is listening to God’s Word and celebrating the Sacraments.  Coming to Mass on Sunday, for example, is not just a rule or obligation that we must fulfil; rather it is like the regular visit we make to a friend or to an elderly mother, a sign of our love for them.  Coming to Mass on Sunday to receive the Word and communion, is like the branches receiving life-giving sap from the vine, or like the baby receiving nourishment from the mother.

Of course even the loving relationship between a mother and child is not without its share of pain and suffering.  You have the tantrums of the terrible twos, the tantrums of the teenage years and the silent treatment of the young adults.  These difficulties need to be pruned.  And after the pruning, usually mother and child overcome these difficulties and grow closer to each other.  Similarly, despite our sinfulness, in the end our relationship with God is restored by conversion and penance, in the sacrament of confession.

Of course the whole purpose of growing vines and pruning the branches is to produce grapes, from which wine is produced. Many mothers usually expect from their children grandchildren.  But others are just content to see their adult children happy and doing well in life.  The fruit we produce as the disciples of Jesus is good deeds that follow the way of the Lord.

Conclusion

And so, as you prepare to honour your mother next Sunday, think about how that relationship somehow mirrors our relationship with God.

And as we have received love and nourishment from our mothers, let us remember all the love and nourishment from God.  And as we reciprocate perhaps by cherishing the memory of our mothers in some way, let us recommit ourselves to always doing good deeds, deeds that would make both our earthly mothers and our heavenly Father proud.