May we be pruned that we may bear more fruit!
This analogy is so rich in meaning that every time one reads it there is so much more detail to be seen and appreciation of the relationship between the Father, the Son and us.
It is a comparison that means so much to us in our day, but it would have meant something even more important to the early Church that was in a position of seeking to evangelise in a period of persecution that meant that there were problems of being too vocal thereby undoubtedly leading to martyrdom or being recalcitrant and hiding one’s faith, which was considered heinous by the early Church.
John was making an important statement. Courage! Jesus is what he said he is, the vine from which all the good fruit comes, the image that the Jewish converts would have appreciated from the imagery of the Old Testament of the vine being planted and nurtured by God for his people only for them to neglect or destroy it, thereby cutting themselves off from God and bearing no fruit. What a contrast Jesus brings.
And in that context, it was important to act on the instruction of Christ to be the ones who would bear much fruit.
But there is a flip side to that. John was reminding them that their mission was not to accept the faith and merely hide it in the face of any threats, but to be bold and profess their faith in the site of men that others might be persuaded by the witness that they gave.
Doesn’t that sound exactly like what we need to be doing? We should re-read this passage of the gospel in the context of the New Evangelisation where we need to demonstrate, through our actions and then our words, to the world that Jesus is the true vine, the one through whom we bear much fruit and without whom we wither.
And that’s in the world to come as well as this one.
So let’s pray that God will give us the fortitude to be evangelists for the faith, to be witnesses to the teaching of Christ’s bride, his Church and for us to make our home in Christ so that he can make his home in us!
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.’