Gospel according to Saint 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 every one 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.”

Love Song for the Vineyard (Isaiah 5)

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, April 28, 2024 | V Sunday of Easter

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

The metaphor of the vine and the branches is simple and extraordinarily meaningful, which is why Christ faithfully takes it from the Old Testament and gives it a full and inspiring meaning for every human being. The prophet Isaiah had already said:

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in (Is 5: 7).

In what we hear today from Jesus, we can distinguish at least three teachings about our nature:

* It is possible and frequent that loving others, those who do not understand us or do not esteem us, is something painful. But the image of the vine is telling us that it is also natural, that we are made to love our neighbor, however hard it may be at times. As the Irish poet William B. Yeats (1865-1939) wrote: If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are branches of the same tree. At this time in our history, when we idolize individualism, showing that we are different, even individualistic ways of living a so-called spiritual life, we need to remember that we are branches of the same vine, that no one can be a stranger in my life.

The basis for living an authentic charity is not the sharing of ideas, dreams or values (which is not at all negligible!) but the awareness that we receive the same sap, the same spiritual blood: the whispering voices of the divine persons, which we must learn to listen to with all their nuances, with all their tonalities, with ever new suggestions.

* He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. Christ teaches us that we are already united to Him. We Christians know that the Divine Persons are really within us, as theologians say, they dwell in us, we are their residence. That is why we can bear fruit. That is why there are people who are not baptized, who know nothing of the Gospel, but live an admirable virtue and mercy. Let us not forget how Christ is amazed before the Canaanite woman (Mt 15:28) and before the centurion of Capernaum. He affirms with admiration: I have not found in Israel such faith as this (Mt 8:10).

If we were attentive to the deepest restlessness of every human being, to what our Founding Father calls his Aspiration, it would happen to us as it did to Deacon Philip, (Acts 8: 26-38), who was inspired to approach the official of the queen of the Ethiopians, precisely when he was wondering about the meaning of Isaiah’s words. His apostolic act meant the immediate conversion of the foreigner.

I always remember a friend of my family who never went to any church. He didn’t speak badly or make fun of people who prayed and went to mass, but he dedicated the little time he had to listening to music. He was a train mechanic and also worked as a watchman in the evenings. He had been widowed very young and had no children. People asked him why he worked so hard, if he didn’t have a family to feed. He would answer with a smile, saying that he liked to be active, that he preferred that to staying at home listening to the music he loved so much.

It was only when he died that we all learned that he sent almost all the money he earned to two of his wife’s aunts, who were living in dire financial straits in different cities, while he only spent what was necessary to dress and feed himself with true austerity.

How could those of us who knew him forget his example?

How could he imagine that his life brought us close to a God whom he claimed not to know?

* Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. This is not a threat. It is a reality, a fact that we can see in the lives of many people, in yours and in mine.

Both the people to whom we attribute exemplary actions, as well as those who have done nothing spectacular, have at the end of their lives the impression that they could have done something more, something better. For some, life goes by too fast, for others it goes by too slowly, but always, however exciting or intense it may have been, it leaves a taste of something minuscule, incomplete, tiring and fleeting. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1: 3).

Everything we do in our lives, if it is not inspired and enlightened by God, is certainly vanity and leaves us unsatisfied, whether it is morally reprehensible or excellent. Everything is a consequence of our desires, good or bad, but blind, or of the norms that society imposes on us. I am reminded of the short story by H. G. Wells (1866-1946) entitled The Beautiful Suit:

A young boy’s mother makes him a beautiful green and gold suit, of indescribable delicacy and fineness. The buttons shine like stars, and he is so fascinated by his new suit that he wants to wear it everywhere. But his mother tells him to take great care of his new suit and to wear it only on “great occasions,” for he will never have another like it. She does, however, sometimes allow him to wear it to church on Sundays, but only after putting protections on the areas most prone to wear and tear, such as the cuffs and elbows, and wrapping the buttons in tissue paper.

On a strange and special night, the young man wakes up and sees moonlight shining outside his bedroom window, but no ordinary moonlight. He decides that the time has come to put on his suit as he should, without any of his protections. After dressing in his beautiful costume, he goes out the window into the garden below. The moonlight is indeed special and the darkness of the night is replaced by warm and mysterious shadows.

He makes his way through the garden hedge, ignoring its thorns and brambles, and heads for the duck pond, which looks to him like a great bowl of silvery moonlight. After wading through the pond, he reaches a point where he encounters a vaporous moth (symbol of death), which approaches until its velvet wings brush his lips.

The next morning, the young boy appears dead at the bottom of the stone well, his once beautiful costume bloodied, but the expression on his face is one of serene happiness.

It is no coincidence that in the First and Second Readings, Paul and John show the freedom and joy with which they move when they are conscious of doing something in the name of God, in spite of misunderstandings and persecutions. Without fear of being mistaken, we can say that we do something “in the name of the Lord” when we do not utter a word or have a thought against our neighbor.

When someone moves away from the vineyard, he ceases to bear fruit and, although he has a feverish activity and seems determined to help his neighbor, in reality his intention is selfish and vain. This is easy to see, for example, by contemplating how our ego is satisfied by correcting the errors of others. We do this not as a work of mercy, but to show our superiority.

—ooOoo—

Christ speaks clearly of how his Father and our Father, the owner of the vine, purifies us. Again, the image of pruning is expressive and accurate: growing, changing and accepting correction is always painful. Even accepting a simple observation that contradicts us produces more or less intense pain. The proof is how most of us make excuses and give explanations of all kinds in minor and major matters:

– Sorry I didn’t answer your email earlier, as my aunt visited me these days.

– My God, I know I shouldn’t waste my time on the Internet. Thank goodness it is not an addiction with me, as is the case with younger siblings.

– Another time I’ve been called out for breaking a dish, as if it’s a sign that I’m careless. This month it has happened to me less than fifteen times and always because others have distracted me while I was washing dishes.

– I did not inform you of this matter so as not to waste your precious time.

The most important statement Jesus makes today about himself is the beginning of the Gospel text: I am the true vine. Let us remember that in the Old Testament the vine is the people of Israel, who, in spite of many infidelities and weaknesses, gave abundant fruit, thanks to the forgiveness and mercy of the vinedresser. Now Christ personally takes the place of the chosen people. United to Him are the green branches and the weak, but through the Holy Spirit and the true apostles, there is always an opportunity to bear fruit.

For this reason, those who become discouraged or angry because of the mediocrity of the members of their community or of the Church, are not aware that the most precious testimony, the most genuine fruit, is to preserve unity, as Christ repeats. There are other fruits of effectiveness, of success in “moving many people”, of transmitting the Word in an original and clear way.

But if we forget that the sign of being an authentic branch is unity with the vine and therefore with the other branches, we will have fallen into a lack of faith in the one who approached the lepers, who was a friend of publicans and sinners, who recognized that not everyone in the community is clean (Jn 13: 11) and yet did not expel anyone.

To turn away from the community, or from a person because he/she speaks ill of me, to refuse to do anything in common, because I only see in others the need to be pruned, is a lack of trust in the one who claims to be the vine, in the one who welcomes the branches with hope because he nourishes and cleanses them thanks to the Word that I have proclaimed to you, even though they are not innocent, as you and I are not.

The First Reading is a moving, extreme example of how Providence, in this case through Barnabas, keeps Paul in the Church, even though no one trusted him.

Do I think I am better than the Holy Spirit in judging that some have no place in the mission?

Do I plead before Christ to know what fruit the difficult or insensitive person next to me can bear?

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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President