4th Sunday of Easter B
✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire, and they are burnt.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will
and you shall get it.
It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit,
and then you will be my disciples.’
1. Any plant that is not connected to its root dies. It is the same for all created being. Any one that loses its connection to the root dies and consequently bears no fruit. The Old Testament uses the image of the vine and its connection to the branches to show God’s connection with his people Israel. In Isaiah chapter 5 God lamented Israel’s unfaithfulness by comparing her to an unfruitful vineyard: ” The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel…He looked for justice, but found bloodshed; he looked for righteousness but heard cries of distress”(5:7). In reaction to this infidelity God would cut his connection with them and give them up to oppression by their enemies. In today’s gospel Jesus uses the same image of vine to speak of his relationship with his disciples. His emphasis is again on being connected to the main stem in order to be able to bear fruit. He sees himself as the vine and his disciples as the branches. Now, each branch has the option of being fruitful or being unfruitful. Let us consider the destiny of the fruitful branch before that of the unfruitful one.
2. The interest of every vinedresser is to have a bountiful harvest. He gives in a lot to realize this aim. When the fruits are about to come out, he takes care to prune every fruitful branch, removing unnecessary and weak branches. This makes the sap to flow from the wounded branches, as if to say that the vine is weeping and shedding tears from the cuts. But with the healing comes the burgeoning of the vine. This makes the fruits more robust and abundant. With this image Jesus teaches that those who try to live by his word will not be saved from difficulties but out of their difficulties will come a greater communion with God, giving them access to God’s blessings. Thus Jesus says: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it.” It is only in this connection that one is truly a disciple of Jesus. The experience of St. Paul as shortly shown in the first reading (Act 9:26-31) demonstrates that turning to Christ can bring difficulties but it also makes one more useful. Paul faced challenges to his life but won souls for Christ. He bore abundant fruit.
3. As for those who refuse to bear fruit, those who remain Christians without practicing the dictates of the faith, Jesus describes them as branches that are cut off and left to wither, branches without connection. The history of humanity shows that humanity has in the past cut itself off from God and without Him was able to achieve much. The first example in the Bible is the construction of towel of Babel.”Come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching the heavens, so that we make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth”(Gen 11:4). Humanity did that without God and what was the result? Confusion. In the late 17th and 18th centuries humanity invented the age of Enlightenment and projected a golden age of reason when humanity would attain perfect happiness without God and religion. Reason become elevated as God while religion became the reserve of the unlearned. This led to revolutionary movements aimed at removing God from his world. How did this end? Wars and confusion. It was after observing this that a french philosopher Pascal made a great statement saying that “man can build the world without God but he will end up building it against man.” This corresponds with the saying of Jesus in today’s gospel: “apart from me you can do nothing.” This does not mean that we cannot make any achievement without Christ. No, we can do a lot without him but the end result of all that is done without God will be counted as nothing. The evidences are everywhere for us to verify.
4. Today humanity is involved in another wild goose chase, trying to create a world without morality, developing anthropologies that are not based on reality. Such include gender ideology, sexual libertinism and religion without God. The result is already known. Humanity will progress to nothing, a situation where man will be everywhere but nowhere, where people will journey without having any destination in mind. We can already see nothingness emerging in the piece meal progression of a third world war. The word of Christ in today’s gospel is still ad rem today. Humanity can only be truly successful by turning to Christ.
5. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have only one choice, to remain connected and bear fruit by living by the words of God. If you choose to move along in a godless manner, you may be successful in your endeavours but the famous parable that concluded the sermon on the mount may well apply to your work: ” But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”(Mt7:26-27). Many people are today building beautiful and gigantic edifices on sand because they are cut off from God. Time will prove the worth of their work. As for you remain in Christ the Vine and you will bear fruit. You need the Christ Connection to be truly successful.
© Vitalis Anaehobi
28/04/24
