Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 13, 2020

John 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Jesus states here that he does not mere followers, as other leaders have followers; he wants “adherents”, that is, people who adhere to him and draw their life from his, for whom separation from him means something worse than physical death.  A “follower” is one who listens to a person and agrees with what that person says.  A follower may drift away and come back again, or even decide on the limits of following.  A follower may be a close follower or a distant one; he may imitate the leader’s behavior, or not.  But a human leader cannot give life to anyone, and if he asserts, as Jesus does, that “without me you can do nothing”, we would, if we were sane, consider him to be insane.  There were certainly those among the Lord’s hearers who considered him insane or possessed by the devil.  But those who listened to him and saw the works he performed believed or came to believe that he is God, and that therefore he can and must be able to say, “I am the true vine.”

When God created the heavens and the earth, he looked upon what he had made and he “saw that it was good” (cf. Genesis 1, 12).  All the good and beautiful things that God made, from the humblest to the grandest, is a sign of him and of his power.  The grapevine is such a sign.  Now, it is necessary to keep in mind that it is a sign of God, and that God is not a sign of it. Jesus says that he is the “true vine”.  Any other “vine”, therefore, resembles the true vine to some degree.  To call something else a vine is a mere equivocation, and a convenience for us.  So, as an earthly plant which we call a “vine” gives life to its branches, much more so does Christ give life to his members, his “branches”.  Now, we are not physically joined to Christ as the branches of an earthly vine are joined to it.  Our joining is much more substantial.  It is a spiritual reality.  How then can we tell that we are members of Christ?  The Lord says that because we belong to him we bear “much fruit”.  Our very fruitfulness shows that we belong to him.  And the fruitfulness of which he speaks is particularly evident in the form of those to whom we transmit the Faith.  That is to say, through our good example, our good works, and our words of preaching, prudently delivered, the life of Christ is extended to new members.  We cannot be fruitful on our own but it comes from Jesus and the grace he provides.  This fruitfulness is not just a sign of our belonging to him, as though it were a medal of commendation, but is necessary for our own continued life in him.  If we receive his life but do not let it flow from us into others — if we bottle it up, as it were, out of fear or sloth — we will die.  The Father, the Owner of the Vine, “takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,” Jesus warns us.

We are not left alone with the work of fruitfulness, however.  The Father “prunes” the branches that belong to his Son’s Body.  We see what this means when he hear Jesus tell his Apostles, “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.”  That is, Jesus has spoken to them, taught them, instructed them away from the crowds, answered their questions, shown them miracles close up, and they, for their part, have given up everything for the sake of his word, and suffered on account of it.  Their privations, the penitential lives they lead, free them to think deeply on what they have seen and heard, and to live the Lord’s word.  Fruitfulness is not labor for them; it is natural.  And at the end of time, we who are fruitful branches will be raised into heaven where our Vine already dwells.