Walking with Jesus: Fifth Sunday of Easter

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

Have you ever thought about: Where do I find the source of my knowledge about Jesus? How much time do I spend reflecting on the meaning of Jesus’ message in my life today? Is Jesus important to me each day? Do I find myself only thinking about Jesus’ actions and words when I go to Mass or livestream it? Is the time I spend with God, mostly with age-old prayers and devotionals; or in sitting, reflecting, talking and listening with my Lord and Creator? What have I found is the best way for me to build up my relationship with my loving God?

Today Jesus tells us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in them will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.” [John 15:5] This is gardening season. Life is springing up all around us. Flowers, trees are blooming; sap is running and it is a bad pollen season. So we know all about sap flowing life through the vine to the branches. The source of all life is Our Loving Creator. All life flows from God. Jesus tells us that God is within each person, renewing hearts from the inside as only God can do. What are we to do? Jesus makes no bones about this; He tells us directly what the Father wants. God wants us to “… bear much fruit and become My disciples.” [John 15:8] We have been given physical life.  We have been filled with the spiritual life of God’s total, forgiving, caring love. Since all of these are God’s gifts and we are created in the image and likeness of God, we are asked and have committed by way of our Baptism to make a difference not only in our lives but in all others so that Heaven is our reachable goal. A daily reflective question is, how did I do today? Did people in my life see some image of Jesus’ love? To accomplish this, as in any gardening, we have to be trimmed, pruned, weeded and prepared so that our “fruit,” God’s love, is visible and alive in each of us. This is the goal of our readings today.

Acts, Luke’s second writing, tells us how God’s plans consistently move forward beyond any internal or external blockages. Saul/Paul is the perfect example of this. “When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.” [Acts 9: 26] They are well aware that he was the authority behind Stephen’s being stoned to death. He also was commissioned by the Jewish religious authorities to “reign in” this new heretical movement. How could this person now serve God? In time he became a model disciple, sharing how his call had come from God Himself. Imagine being a believer, perhaps seeing and listening to Jesus, witnessing some part of the crucifixion. Now this “former persecutor” said, I believe now. The apostles no doubt shared how they had also seen the Risen Christ, but I’m sure they had their doubts about Paul. Only when threats came to Paul’s life did they took steps to protect him. An interesting final sentence showed how the Church thrived and was at peace, certainly implying that the persecutions had not yet started. They realized that the Lord was behind all their successes. The Holy Spirit was the driving force behind it all. Hasn’t our spiritual life progressed with doubts, confronting the hard truth about ourselves and being aware of God?

In the second reading John assures us that God answers our sincere prayers for strength and that we must remain faithful in living in Jesus and loving as Jesus showed us. Jesus taught us that the only way is by loving one another, even if it means laying down our lives: we do this in our actions, in our love support statements, by our total example living in love. We always receive God’s love in this.

As with the Good Shepherd image from last week, the True Vine image is drawn from the Old Testament's Sirach 24:16-17: “I spread out My branches like a terebinth, my branches so bright and so graceful. I bud forth delights like the vine, My blossoms become fruit fair and rich. Come to Me, all you that yearn for Me, and be filled with My fruits.” In the Gospel we can see the deep intimacy that exists between Jesus as the true vine and the Father as the vine grower. The branches must produce the fruit because they are intimately connected to the vine. Pruning and trimming does not produce the fruit but it creates more room for those that can be fruitful. This points so beautifully to you and me carrying on the work of Jesus. What is essential is that each of us remain connected to the vine … to Jesus. We are not solo figures … we are to work together with the Church, with each other. We question: What are the “little things — the bugs” that are eating away our relationship with the Lord? Is it: I have no time to pray … harboring resentments … forgetting faith-filled journeyers … too busy … ignoring my conscience? Jesus, I need Your help to love. Thanks.

So I reflect on:

• In thinking about my growing along with springtime, how can I allow the Holy Spirit to fertilize my spiritual life this week?
• Jesus’ love always flows within me; how can I allow this to abound with love for the others in my life along with constant compassion?
  

Sacred Space 2021 reads:

“‘Apart from Me you can do nothing.’ We could call to mind our total dependence on Christ for life and love. Recall His many gifts over the years and ask for more.

“The Father is pruning us, working deep in our hearts to draw us closer to Himself in Christ. Am I resisting His efforts? Let us ask for the gift of openness to His pruning work.”