April 28, 2024
5th Sunday
Easter
FOCUS: Remain in Jesus as the Father tends and cares for us.
When we remain in Jesus, his word remains in us, and we bear the fruit of love for one another. The Father prunes us, knowing what we need and do not need to grow and flourish. No other vine is as life-giving as that of Jesus.
What's in Your Heart
Bearing witness to God's truth, having confidence in God's responsiveness, feeling connected to God's presence—these are gospel messages to contemplate.
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Like Barnabus, have I had moments of courageous witness?
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What is my greatest need? Do I have confidence that God will fulfill it if I ask?
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Do I follow the commandment to love? Do I lead others to that love?
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Do I feel close to Jesus? What more can I do to remain in him as he remains in me?
Homily Stories
Down the hill from the town of Alberobello, in the farming village of Corregio rests the land my father was born on. Divided among the sons over the centuries, it no longer was large enough to sustain my dad and uncles. The three oldest came to America, leaving it all behind for their youngest brother, my Uncle Mike, responsible for it to sustain him and the family remaining.
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His income came mostly from an old wine/olive press. The land still had fig and olive trees, and ancient grape vines, none of which produced valuable crops for him. Most local young men and women had moved up to Northern Italy where less strenuous, better paying jobs existed or made their way to the United States. He complained to me, “Ours are great grape vines and olive trees hundreds of years old and figs that restaurants in Milan want but without help, what good are all that is in the trees and on the vines if there is no one to cultivate and pick them?”
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Since my uncle’s death, B&Bs are what have sprouted. Sadly, what’s left of the trees and vines, no longer pruned, have grown wild. The press sits unused as a monument to the past. Jesus promises that he will bear the good fruit that we are. But we are also needed to do the work necessary for our faith to be shared so others can bear the fruit born from 2,000 years of faith. He can’t do it alone.
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Quotes
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You have to prune so you can grow.
—Liz Montigny, goals coach and retreat leader
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Vines and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.
—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel
Reflection
God knows we all need some real community. He hard-wired that need into us when He created us. From the Garden of Eden forward God created humankind in relationship, male and female, because, as God said it, “it is not good for humankind to be alone.” The first curse inflicted upon humanity was the exile of Cain after he killed his brother Abel. There could be few worse punishments—to be placed outside of community. With all due respect to Simon and Garfunkle’s famous lyrics, humans are not at their best when we sing, “I am a rock. I am an island. I’ve built walls, a fortress deep and mighty, that none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain . . . I touch no one, and no one touches me . . . . I am a rock. I am an island.” We were made to be connected. None us can make it on our own, we were not meant to. We learn best when we can exchange ideas and challenge each other’s thinking. We need help to recover when we are too weak to mange on our own. We need the strength and companionship of shared joys and sorrows. We need a work and purpose in life that is bigger than we could accomplish all by ourselves.
And that is the very sense of community and connection Jesus offered to his disciples, and to all of us, as he spoke to them the night before his crucifixion. Using the metaphor of the vine, Jesus reminded us that he is the vine that holds the various branches together. He is the vine that streams the nutrient from the soil of our Maker into our branched lives. He is the source of our strength and life from which we derive the power to bloom and bear fruit. Without the vine the branches wither. Without the vine, the branches lose their connection to the soil and to each other. Without the vine the branches have no life, no future. Sure, all of the exciting action of the plant’s life seems to be taking place out on the branches—waving leafy arms to the passing world, boasting colored flowers in the sun, holding up fat fruit for the harvest. And the branches are tempted to think that they are the real stars of the show, without much need for the ever-present but non-blooming vine. Woe to the foolish branch that forgets the vine! It is a short season in the sun for that self-made branch, and it usually ends up soon thereafter in a nearby fireplace.
Jesus would have us avoid the foolish branch’s solitary end. If we stay connected to Christ, we will be connected to God and to each other in ways we could never deserve nor understand. And we will know the joy of real community, real connection, that all of our technological gizmo’s could only mimic. And what is the name for this community, where ordinary people can gather again at a table, where we can each know and be known as we really are? It is called Church. This is the place where we can call upon God and upon each other at any time, at any place