Acts 9:26-31; 1 Jn
3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8
“I am the true vine
and my Father is the vinegrower. If any of my branches doesn’t bear fruit, he
breaks it off; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, that it may
bear even more fruit” (Jn 15:1-2).
In today’s gospel,
Jesus uses the familiar image of the vine and the branches to teach us lessons
about our Christian life. First of all, the image reminds us that God is the
real owner of everything that we have and are. He is the vinegrower. He does to
us what he thinks is good and right. As disciples, we need to live our life as
if we don’t own anything. We belong fully to God. We should not allow our
selfishness and pride to make us think that we have absolute control over our
lives. Rather, we always have to be open to God’s action, confident that he
knows fully what is good for us.
Second, the image
teaches us that Jesus is the source of our life and the point which connects us
with one another. He is the vine and we are the branches. A branch cut off from
the vine will wither and die. And so it is with our life as disciples – we live
fully and become fruitful only by remaining in Christ. In the gospel of John,
the word “abide” appears at least thirty-seven times: “Abiding in God”, “abiding
in Christ”, and “abiding in his Word”. We need to remain in Christ because
apart from him, we can do nothing.
And finally, the image
tells us that in order to stay healthy and fruitful we need pruning.
Vinegrowers know that the act of pruning is good to the branch. If the branch
is not pruned for a long time, it becomes wild and produces no good grapes.
Sometimes in our lives, God intervenes with the cross in order to challenge and
make us grow. To take away our pride, sometimes God allows us to fail. To make
us grow stronger in faith, sometimes God sends us trials and difficulties.
No comments:
Post a Comment