Today’s gospel has Jesus using the metaphor from the vineyard, very recognizable to His listeners of the day, to illus-trate the simple yet vital teaching that we must stay connected to God if we wish to bear real fruit in our lives of discipleship. Christ goes on to tell His friends that He—the Christ—is the true vine and they, His disciples, are the branches. If they stay connected, they will bear fruit—meaning they will enable others to enter the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, they will not bear fruit if they are cut off from Him. Our connectedness to God makes us authentic disciples, indeed authentic human beings; since a branch that remains connected to the vine will continue to draw life and health from its roots and will then eventually bear the fruit it was made to bear, if it is cut off, then that branch can only wither and fade, never bearing fruit.
Our connectedness to the vine—to God—empowers us to be His authentic disciples. When we have His knowledge (from Sacred Scripture and Church teachings) and when we ac-cept God’s Grace (through the Sacraments of the Church, which were instituted and given to the Church by Christ Himself) then we can make righteous decisions about all things in life— including about life itself. When we have false knowledge, half-truths, and misinformation born out of lies or conveniences, then the decisions we make are falsely founded, and as such lead only to darkness.
I know that many people—many good people—feel that their own lives and experiences gives them a particular vantage point from which to "improve" the truths of Christ that are taught by our Catholic Church on a whole host of issues, from the dignity and sacredness of every human life to marriage and medi-cal ethics. Sometimes it is born from convenience and sometimes it is just the modern world and its constant mix of so-called ex-pert opinions which places the absolute truths of Christ in a dif-ferent light, a light which conflicts with current individual or societal wants. And if our "connectedness" is fed from conven-ience rather than from truth, then our fruit-bearing time is not only limited but it is shallow and thus frail. Christ gave us certain truths, which we as Christians believe come from Him, who is God, yet some feel quite comfortable in deciding that "we" know better than God and can rewrite those absolute truths for the sake of modern convenience. As I have said at many a wedding homily, if marriage is to be the image of Christ’s love for His Church, then how many of us desire a God that will abandon us or who will find our faults and failures, our weakness to be the reason to no longer love us?
As a priest I have met a number of people in the hospi-tal—on their deathbeds—and who have cut themselves "free" from the Vine for any number of reasons. And at the end they seek the Sacrament of the Sick and the hope, born from the final confession, that promises a life without pain and one lived forever in His complete joy. What they are asking is to be "reconnected" or to be graphed back onto the Vine. For it is our human nature to desire God, to hope for eternal life. We must ask ourselves, who then put this desire in our hearts? Who has first "planted us" and who cares for and nurtures us always?
All of us, just as with the dying person in the hospital bed, have times when our need for Christ is urgent. We may be sick, in pain, lonely or depressed. We may have problems that seem to overwhelm us or difficulties that appear to have no solution. We may be distressed by ever-present events in our world that are highlighted by 24/7 news coverage. If we are blessed, we find comfort in our families, friends and in our church community, such as Saul, in today’s first reading received from Barnabas, and eventually from the other disciples. But most of all, we can be reassured by the Gospel today that if we remain true to our belief in Christ and remain as much a part of Him as branches are part of a vine, then we shall ultimately have our prayers answered whatever our needs may be. For in the end, then may we all know what peace it is to be in the presence of Christ.
As we work to build our lives, to empower our families and our children, as we seek to "secure" the future with material items such as homes, 401Ks and other investments…may we be blessed to realize that the most rewarding investment, the great-est legacy we can leave to our children and to our spouses and friends is rich belief in Christ and His love for us; a love that will cultivate in us the ability to bear much fruit in this life, fruit that will fill our arms with concern for life, for the poor, for the forgot-ten—fruit that will fill our arms as we stand before the Lord on that final day, and as He sees in us the goodness He has called for. We will then enter into the House of all houses, the Mansion with many rooms prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Let us bear such ripe and succulent fruit for all eternity!
-Fr. Michael