Apr 28 Sun
To meditate on the words of Jesus about the vine and the branches is to meditate on his legacy in a more profound way. It’s still more profound than in the previous Sunday with the Shepherd and the sheep.
The branch is an extension, a prolongation, of the same plant, the vine; it was born from the vine. From it, the branch acquires the fluid that feeds it, the humidity of the ground, and everything else that makes it possible to be transformed and eventually, to produce grapes. By itself it can produce nothing, nothing serious, not a branch of grapes, nothing.
It is the same truth that St Paul teaches us with the simile of the body and its members. Christ is the head of the body, which is the Church. Any Christian is a member of her. Any member separated from the rest of the body can do nothing.
How does how does it apply to us? By instinct, it goes against our sense of autonomy and freedom. We always feel being a complete unit and not a part.
Likewise in baptism, we, who were wild olives bearing no useful fruit, became grafted into Christ. We became branches of the true vine, branches of a good olive tree. All this because of the force of the Holy Spirit (grace) which has been given to us. Communicating both, the vine and the branch, there is the Holy Spirit.
What is then our duty as branches? Saint John has a favorite word to express it: “to remain,” understood as united to the true vine, which is Christ. Remain in me and I in you…, if you do not remain in me…, whoever remains in me... To remain attached to the vine, and remain in Christ Jesus, means, above all, not to abandon the commitments assumed in baptism, not to escape to a distant country like the prodigal son.
I am doing well, you may say. But can I assume to be attached to Christ on one instance, and soon after live a bad life, as if I were a visitor of Christianity? Like some, may I continue not living my Christian vocation seriously, going day after day from infidelity to infidelity, permissiveness after permissiveness, leaving out commitment after commitment, leaving behind first, going to communion, then even going to Mass, then praying, and finally abandoning everything? …and still think that everything is ok?
To remain in Christ Jesus also signifies something positive: to remain in his love. That is, in the love he has for us, rather than the love that we have for him. It means to allow him to love us, to pass on to us the feeding fluid, which is his Spirit. Avoiding placing, between him and us, the insurmountable barrier of self-sufficiency, of indifference, and of sin.
Then Jesus shows us the consequences of separating from him: the branch becomes dry; even is externally looks good, it becomes a useless branch incapable of giving fruit.
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