What could be better than a life where we love the Lord Our God and we are at one with our neighbour? And we are promised: “whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in them.”
What a promise! It is then that we can have the confidence that whatever we ask of the Father we shall receive, because we will want what we know to be good.
And that sets us up nicely for what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel. He is the vine, the source of all goodness through which all the good fruit will be sourced. And his Father is the vinedresser, the one who will be responsible for ensuring good fruit emerges, and we, we are the branches.
We know that the branches that bear fruit will be pruned to make more. So if we are with him he will trim us to be rid of those tired, useless and ultimately fruitless limbs that stop us from bearing the fruit of our Christian life. And that will bring forth even more fruit but only because our love and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But just like we are warned of our need to follow the Commandments to be with the Father, so we reflect on just how fruitful we are, or if, heaven above, we are the branch that bears no fruit. We hear that this is useless to the Father. It not only produces no fruit but physically stops new fruit from growing. These branches wither and are no good and will be collected and burnt.
So we are warned. But the solution is right there. Let’s be an Easter people rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ and fulfilling the message that he gave us of love, love at all cost. And we are promised that “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it.”
Let’s renew our love of Jesus, let’s renew our commitment to his word and let us renew our life in his Commandments and we will give glory to the Father and we will be Jesus’ disciples.
What a message for eternal life!
Gospel John 15:1-8 ©
Jesus said:
‘I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit
he prunes to make it bear even more.
You are pruned already,
by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
but must remain part of the vine,
neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers;
these branches are collected and thrown on the fire,
and they are burnt.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask what you will
and you shall get it.
It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit,
and then you will be my disciples.’