“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” | Fifth Sunday of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “To him alone shall bow down all who sleep in the earth; before him shall bend all who go down into the dust. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 15:1-8)

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples and all who hear his word to remain in him. The word remain appears eight times in the passage and twice in the First Letter of John. It is vital—literally life-giving—to remain in Christ, the vine. Remaining in him bears spiritual fruit all along the branch—in this life now and as the means of obtaining eternal life. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither.” Jesus repeats what he said in yesterday’s Gospel about the glorification of the Father: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” In remaining in Christ, we keep his commandments. And his commandment is this, John tells us: “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.”

God, how is it that we have free will, yet Jesus commands us to love one another? John says, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” So how do I reconcile those two—free will and the command to love? When it is difficult to love another, help me recognize the futility of struggling outside of the truth so that I can quickly get back to knowing that I belong to the truth, that to you I belong. In vain, I would try any other way—judgment, avoidance, superiority—and I find out all of them are lies. In choosing to return to you, Lord, help me freely remain in your truth and ask you for whatever I need in bearing the fruit that glorifies your name.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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