The Divine and Human Interconnectedness!

 (Homily for 5^th Sunday of Easter Year B)

       In the readings of today the memory of Easter lingers on. For in view and through the Event of Christ we see the chain of relationships that exists between Jesus and the Father, between Jesus and his followers and between the Father and the followers. Our reflection this Sunday centers on the theme of mutual indwelling as suggestive of the epistle reading and the Gospel. And this mutual indwelling points to the divine and human interconnectedness, in the God / man relationship. Interestingly, the first reading reporting the initial effort of St. Paul to join the rest of the Apostles reinstates the necessity for each and every one of us, no matter what our past has been, to rediscover and go back to be part of the Vine, or better to be a branch of the True Vine. And no doubt, Paul did become a solid branch. What of you? Are you grafted in Christ?

     In today’s Gospel reading (Jn. 15:1-8) Jesus recounts one of his vital experiences in relation to us. Jesus sees himself as connected with us, as connected with the whole of mankind. Today Jesus tells us that we have our home in Him, as He has established his home in us. Last Sunday we meditated on the parable of the Good Shepherd and his sheep (Jn. 10:11-18), therein, we were taught about the close rapport existing between the Good Shepherd and the sheep that follow him and listen to his voice. Today, the word of God as we heard in the Gospel reading proposes another parable to us: “The Vine and the branches”, which is again significant, because it expresses better the nature and the profundity of the rapport existent between Christ and his faithful, between Christ and his Father, and between us and the Father. In his self-affirmation as the “True Vine”, the Father “the Vinedresser” and we the “branches”, he expresses the fact of the divine and human interconnectedness. Jesus presents a figure of a familiar God, an image of a God that does not terrify the people, rather a simple and humble figure of God: A Gardener (the Vinedresser)! An image that presents God as an accessible and approachable God, not a sophisticated and conceptual God, but also a God that is ready to prune and cut off from us those aspects and areas of our lives that make us spiritually redundant and stagnant.

     Through the imagery of the Vine and the branches Jesus expresses to his disciples the true relationship with Him and with one another. Jesus says: “Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me” (v.4). By this Jesus intends to tell his disciples and to us too, that He is not a personage of the past. This statement brings Jesus out of the past, out of history and makes Him present into the Now of our existence. This can and ought to change our whole outlook on life. This renders all life sacred and precious for we are grafted in Jesus, “now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). The branch has value or continued existence only if it abides in the vine. Jesus Christ is the true and real Vine, without him we can do nothing, and our existence will be devoid of meaning. This image more than anything else, evokes the reality of total dependence in Jesus. This reciprocal abiding reveals Christ in us and we in Christ. St. Paul captured this eloquently thus: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of god, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

     However, one may rightly ask: Why does Jesus present Himself as the true vine? The image of the vine was a rich one for the Jews since the land of Israel was covered with numerous vineyards. This allegory of Jesus has religious connotations as well. For instance, Isaiah spoke of the house of Israel as the “vineyard of the Lord (5:7). Jeremiah said that God had planted Israel “as His choice vine” (2:21). Behold, between us and Jesus there is a relationship of a tree and its branches. From the mother tree (Jesus) the branches derive all that are needed to grow and to bear fruits.

     As such, those who work in the vineyard or those who have come in close contact with the vine, understand better the close union that exists between the vine and the branches. It is a vital and profound union, in that, if the branches are not united to the vine, they cannot bear fruit, for from the vine, the branches receive the vital lymph. Indeed, we can refer this union as a spiritual-ontological union. The relationship existent between the Vine and its branches expresses adequately the relationship that exists between Christ and his followers. This indeed, is the divine and human interconnectedness! Our relationship with Jesus must be personal, intimate, indeed it must be a vital union. The unity of the stem and the branches is a living one. In fact, the sap that is the life of the trunk is equally the life of the branches, thus, we are made through this union partakers in the life of God. The faithful in Christ become through this rapport of interconnectedness, participants of the divine life, that springs up from Christ, and that has in Him, its fullness. Indeed, “from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16).

     Furthermore, the paramount event that made us branches of the Vine, that grafted us in Christ is the Sacrament of Baptism (cf. Rm. 11:16), for through it the Spirit of Christ was poured into our hearts (Rm. 5:5), and we become regenerated into the divine life of Christ. Besides, an essential and existential aspect of this union in and with Christ, is not merely through Baptism and adhesion to faith, rather the invitation to “remain” in him and he in us. The verb “to remain” forms the very backbone of this union. This call “to remain” in him is repeated several times in the context of our Gospel passage. It invites us to a vital communion and intimate friendship with Him. As a matter of fact, remaining in him gives us an assurance of our prayers being answered, for he says: “if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it” (Jn. 15:7).

     Drawing the issue further, viewed from the optics of our baptism in Christ, “to remain” in Christ signifies: ●to be faithful to the responsibilities that emanate from our Baptism. ●to be faithful to the teachings of Christ. ●to remain in the love of Christ (Jn. 15:2). ●to remain in Christ, above all, signifies to mature in him (cf. Eph. 4:15), to become adults in faith and thus bearing abundant fruits of good works. Jesus even said “It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples” (Jn. 15:8). The more one remains united to Christ, the more he participates in his friendship and divine life, the more fecund he becomes spiritually. If you remain united to Christ, you will grow in the life of grace and in friendship with him. We have to realize that by nourishing our faith continually with his Word, prayers and with the sacrament of his Presence, the Holy Eucharist, we become matured Christians, and thus, founded in Him. In his words: “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person” (Jn. 6:56). The Eucharist is truly the sacrament of our remaining with and in Christ and Christ with and in us.

     Besides, the word of God today equally invites us to do away with all that impede us to the participation in Him, to ward off bad behaviors and sins that render us disunited and disjointed from Him. Else the Vinedresser “will take away every branch of mine that bears no fruit, and prunes every branch that bears fruit, that it may bear more fruit” (Jn. 15:2). Indeed, the following words of Jesus have to reecho in our hearts: “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch, and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and burnt” (Jn. 15:6). This reveals that out of our own accord there is a possibility of detaching oneself from Christ, and then be condemned to spiritual sterility and inertia, just like dried branches. For “as a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself unless it remains part of the Vine, neither can you unless you remain in me” (Jn. 15:4), separated from Christ we whither!

     The second reading (1Jn. 3:18-24) begins with the challenging and affectionate exhortation of St. John to love. We could imagine John, after meditating and reflecting on the words of his beloved Master, especially the ones about the Vine and the branches, he writes: “Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine” (1Jn.3:18). Indeed, if we love truly, if the living and authentic love of Christ reigns in our heart, we can be sure “to remain in light” (1Jn. 2:10), “to be God’s children and to know Him” (1Jn. 4:7). The theme of true and authentic love connects the second reading with the Gospel, for if we love our brothers and sisters, it entails that we are certainly “remaining in Him and He in us”. True and authentic love is one of the abundant fruits we have to bear for remaining in Christ, like the branches to the allegorical Vine. Here, we see once again the theme of mutual indwelling. Therein, love for the brethren becomes the external test of the mystical union with God, the mutual indwelling orchestrated by Jesus in the Gospel passage, while the internal test is the gift of the Spirit. The union with God and the love for the brethren is not a matter of either /or, but of both / and. In the last verse St. John offers us another veritable way of and for remaining in him: “Whoever keeps his commandments remains in God and God in him. And this is the proof that he remains in us: the Spirit that he has given” (v.24), and because of keeping his commandment he assured us that our prayers will equally be answered: “and whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandment and do what is acceptable to him” (v.22).

     The first reading (Acts 9:26-31) presents the initial tension between Paul and the apostles immediately after his conversion, at his first post-conversion visit, Paul was anxious to join the rest of the apostles, who on the other hand were reluctant to receive him. However, once this initial tension was overcome, Paul “went in and out with them” (v. 28), in the Lukan parlance this phrase denotes intimate companionship. Paul made open confession of his faith in Jesus Christ. Be that as it may, Paul’s desire to be part of the Apostles, thus to become a branch of the True Vine makes the first reading to dovetail into the overriding themes of the second reading and the Gospel. Indeed, when Paul founded his existence in Christ, we saw how his bold and fearless speeches being so effective, attracted the hatred of the authorities, that they sought to kill him. St. Paul indeed, is an existential example of what it entails to remain in him and to bear fruits that glorify God. We need therefore; to empty ourselves of all that is not of God and be refilled with all that is His. We need to detach ourselves from all that is worldly and attach ourselves to the True Vine, Jesus (freedom from and freedom for).

     May God save and deliver us from the tendency and mentality of thinking that we can do without Him, from the tragic illusion of detaching ourselves from Him. But if it happens that out of human weakness and frailty we get detached from Him, we have the grace of reuniting and reconnecting ourselves back to Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Lord Jesus Help us to understand that You are the Only True Vine, and that it is only when we have taken root in you that we can bear fruits. May the Father cut off from us all that does not allow us to bear good fruits to the glory of His name. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)