Sunday 28th of April 2024 - The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31/ Psalm 21(22)/ 1 John 3:18-24/ John 15:1-8

Last Sunday’s theme of Jesus as our caring good shepherd shifts into a deeper meaning of his relationship with us in the gospel passage today. Taking another way of life familiar to his listeners Jesus uses the analogy of the vine and care for it to describe the relationship between him, God the Father and us. Jesus is the vine, God the Father the vine dresser, and we are the branches with the potential to produce much fruit. In our days we might eat and drink the product of the vine, but we might not appreciate the care that has to be taken to produce an abundant crop of grapes. Old, withered branches are cut away and burnt, branches that might appear dead are pruned carefully allowing sap to run into them bringing new life and growth with a rich crop of grapes being the result.

As branches of the vine we are one with Jesus as he is one with the Father. We are joined in a perfect unity just as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are joined as one. Through this perfect unity we have the potential to produce much fruit from what might appear to be lifeless branches. We can also damage this unity and drive Jesus out through sin. If this were allowed to develop we would wither and die. No amount of pruning would be sufficient, and we would be good for nothing and be cut away from the vine and burnt. We can remain attached to Jesus the vine by dealing with our sinfulness through the sacrament of confession. This will allow the sap of the Holy Spirit to once again flow through our withered branches bringing them back to life. Abundant fruit can only be produced from branches that are fed from the main plant. Jesus is the vine, and the sap of faith is fed through it by the Holy Spirit having been pruned by God the Father the vine dresser. We can do nothing on our own, if we are cut away from the vine we will wither and die.

Sin is not simply doing something that is forbidden, it is the betrayal of our closest companion in life. In faith Jesus lives in us and we in him. Through sin we betray Jesus and drive him out of our lives. The perfect unity sought for us by God will be damaged and if allowed to continue we will be increasingly detached from God and the love and care he wishes to lavish on us. It is not God that turns his back on us we turn our backs on him. Our faith must be more than a mere expression of acceptance, it needs to be transforming, real, and active, making us like the one we believe in. Our faith should make us Christlike in our lives.

This Christlike life will have a meaningful effect on our lives. We will love God and our neighbour practicing the virtues of faith, hope and charity. Loving our neighbour means we will respect them in every way. Paul tells us what this looks like, we will be patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle and exercise self-control. We will not show hatred, rivalry, jealousy, anger, lust, or debauchery. It can appear that humanity is drawn towards the bad traits rather than the good. This is a result of the fall, the turning away from God, and is the reason Jesus died on the cross. We might not be able to achieve the perfection to which we are called in this life, but we can make a start knowing that one day we will, as we heard last week, be like God, when we see him as he really is.

The church, founded by Jesus, ensures the continuity of his work on earth. Through the church and the sacraments we can be assured of staying connected to Jesus, the vine tended by God. The church should be a place of unity defined by how it accepts diversity not using differences as an excuse for division. Through this connection we become part of a larger whole, a community of believers joined with those who have gone before us, those around us now and those yet to come. After his life changing experience on his way to Damascus Paul began preaching fearlessly the message of the gospel. How can we follow his example? Today we need to stand up for Christian values that are under threat, promoting the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, upholding the rights of the poor, the disadvantaged, and refugees, encouraging the search for peace rather than a rush to war. Through baptism we all have a shared responsibility to continue to grow in love and peace towards what God wants us to be.

God Bless Brendan