Throughout the week of Good Shepherd Sunday (Fourth Week of Paschaltide), the Gospel Readings ( John 10:1-10(A),11-18 (B), 27-30(C):1-10; 22-30;12:44-50;13:16-20;14:1-6,7-14) have reflected Christological theme of Jesus in his relation to the Father. The Gospel Reading today, the Fifth Sunday of Paschaltide, Cycle B, John 15:1- 8, bears this Father-Son homoousios hypostatic union, also known as, hypostatic consubstantial union, (John 10:30, 38; 14:10-11; 17:21) in relation to the disciples (us). In this Gospel Reading, Jesus puts his relationship with the Father as the relationship between the vine and the vine grower, while describing his relationship to the disciples (us) as the relationship between the vine and its branches.
So, Jesus said:
I
am the 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 (John 15:1-5).
In this Father’s vineyard motif, God the Father is portrayed
to be more involved with us, the branches, than the Father as the owner of the
sheep in Jesus’ Good Shepherd Discourse and his commentary on it (John 10:1-30),
in which the Father entrusted Jesus the Good Shepherd to care for His sheep as
his sheep (John 10:29). On the other hand, in the above description of the
Father as the vine grower, He works directly on the branches, who are the
children of God, connected to the vine the Christ the Son. So, the Father as
the vine grower does the pruning to make sure the branches remain fruitful as
the existence of ones not fruitful at all will not be detrimental to the
fruitful ones. This reminds that God the Father is not a remote being to us but
always His working hands are on us to make sure we are healthy and fruitful.
And, our fruitfulness is not left to the caring hands of the Father but our responsibility
to remain in Jesus, Christ the Son.
Jesus said that his disciples (we) are already
pruned because of the words spoken by him (John 15:3). This suggests that the caring
hands of the vine grower, the Father, work through the words spoken by His Son,
the vine. If pruning is considered as cleansing to maintain fruitfulness, in
addition to purity, then, the pruning effects of the words of Jesus, as the
cleansing agent, can be understood in the juxtaposition between the living
water for life and his words, as spoken by Jesus, in referring to the Holy Spirit
(John 7:37-39) and as prophesized by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:25–27). And this is also echoed in Paul’s epistle
(Titus 3:5). For this reason, Jesus said to Peter when he asked to have his
whole body not just his feet:
Whoever
has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all
over; so you are clean, but not all (John 13:10).
The exception was Judas, the betrayer. And he was “pruned”
out of the vine, as he committed suicide (Matthew 27:5).
In a way, this is how the pruning is done by the
hands of the Father the vine grower for the purity and fruitfulness of the
branches (the disciples, us) of His begotten Son, Jesus the vine.
The Father the vine grower’s pruning work has kept
the disciples (us) to the Son, Jesus the vine. And Jesus does not want his
disciples (us), the branches, to lose this benefit. Jesus does not want us to
waste the meaning of the Father’s pruning work.
So he said:
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 (John 15:4-6).
Through these words, Jesus reminds us that our life depends on him – depending on how we secure ourselves in him as his fruitful disciples. And as we remain in Jesus, he remains in us (John 15:4-5).
In describing his relationship with the disciples
(us) as remaining in with each other in this motif of the vine-and-branches
oneness under the vine grower’s care, we remember that Jesus also called us to
be in him as he is in us during his Living Bread of Life Discourse:
Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him
(John 6:56).
This is to reiterate these words of Jesus:
Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you do not have life within you (John 6:53).
And, with these words, Jesus is making sure that
this call to be in him as he is in us by eating the Living Bread of Life (John
6:51), which is his flesh with blood (John 6:53) is not about cannibalism:
It
is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have
spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:63).
The words spoken by Jesus is not just for cleansing-pruning
as the Father’s hands (John 15:3) but the lifeline, like the blood sent from
mother to her growing embryo to become fetus to baby to be born secured in the
placenta inside the womb through the umbilical cord. When this life-line from
mother to embryo, fetus, baby, is cut prematurely, a growing life in mother’s
womb will die and be aborted. Likewise, if the means of Jesus’ words to us is
cut, then, we cannot remain in Jesus, the branches cannot remain in the vine.
Then, we will die, because this also means that we are not getting the spirit
of life, the Holy Spirit. And, if we have no Holy Spirit, we cannot bear any of
the multifaceted fruit of the Holy Spirit, such as love (Galatians 5:22-23).
So, Jesus wants us to keep us not only alive and
pure but fruitful for glorification of the Father the vine grower by keeping
his words in us as we remain in him (John 15:7-8). This way, we can remain in
him as he in us, mirroring the Father in him, he in Him (John 14:20; 17:21; cf.
John 10:30, 38). This way, the Holy Spirit through the words of Jesus enables
us as the branches to yield abundant love as fruit, perfectly manifesting God’s
love (1 John 4:13).
Stay tuned as we will be reading the rest of the
vine-and-branches motif from John 15 next Sunday focusing more on love (John
15:9-17).
Because our secure attachment with Jesus, as the
branches with the vine, is not just to remain alive but to bear abundant fruits
of the Holy Spirit of love, through his words, the Second Reading (1 John
3:18-24) reminds us that we turn Jesus’ words to love one another as exemplified
by him in his new commandment (John 13:34) into our deeds (1 John 3:18).
As we act on love, as commanded through Jesus’
words, we know whom we belong to, and we belong to the truth (1 John 3:19), and
this is Jesus, who is the truth, as well as, the way and the life (John 14:6),
keeping not only to him but also to the Father (John 14:7). It means that we
must keep yielding abundant fruit – love, through our deeds to remain in the
vine, Jesus, to stay connected to the vine grower, the Father. This is to
glorify the Father (John 15:8). And, this way, we continue to be given what we
need, supplied by Jesus the vine (1 John 3:22; John 15:7). So, his grace is
enough for us (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Once the branches are permanently secured in the
vine, fortified with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the Church grows as one body
of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Then, the branches may represents the multitudes
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11), leading to the way of
love (1 Corinthians 1:1-13). The Church as oneness of the vine and the branches
– oneness of Christ with us the disciples in one body is what perfects love of
God on earth. Today’s First Reading (Acts 9:26-31) gives a reflection of this.
Paul (Saul) was working hard to destroy the vine by
breaking the branches off as he was diligently hunting down Jesus’ disciples.
However, by God’s grace, Paul become a new branch, as he was grafted securely
to the vine. At first, Ananias of
Damascus worked on grafting Paul, representing the caring hands of the Father.
Then, as today’s First Reading describes, Barnabas made sure that this new
branch is also fit with other branches so that all of them would be more
fruitful.
Because the branches were secured in the vine, they
did not reject the newly grafted branch, Paul. But, like an organ transplant, it
took a while for this newly grafted branch, had to be fully fit in. And this is
trust that is also faith (pistis), a
gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9) that both the newly grafted branch
and the rest of the branches shared from the same source, the vine, Jesus, as
all of them received the Holy Spirit, along with his words.
The Church, indeed, is the great vine with its
branches, One Body with Christ as its head, as all of its parts are secured in,
fully functioning by all the necessary nutrients and oxygenation carried in the
Holy Spirit, words of Jesus, like blood and water, also removing what is not
necessary out of the Body to keep bearing abundant fruit. And the best of it is
love.
*****
Do you belong to Jesus, who is the way the truth and the life? Are you his branch? His disciple? Are you securely attached in him?
Do you work diligently to yield abundant fruit, bringing love of God to the world, through the Holy Spirit, as well as, the words of Jesus the true great vine of the Father?
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