Homily, April 28, 2024
From The Pastor
All living things are dependent on love. God is the only reality of love that has no other source or origin. Every other living thing that is capable of love, growth, or generating new life cannot be independently self-sustaining. More than a few human beings resist this reality. Somehow, we prefer self-sufficiency and independence from others. This is not the nature of what it means to be human. We are not independent, and without God or others we cannot realize our full nature and capacity by ourselves. The isolation of the Covid pandemic has once again made this clear.
Love is the foundation of what it means to be human, and with love human beings have the greatest capacity for growth in self-love that inspires mature love for others. As any self-aware person knows, this is not an effortless process. Love can hurt, disappoint, and betray. It takes persistent effort to mature. Being in love, by its nature, will mature a person beyond self-sufficiency, isolated personal gain, and basic selfishness. This process necessitates giving up something of the self for the sake of another. This creates a path to deeper self-realization that supports personal happiness. Many want to think they can make themselves happy all by them self, but this is a contradiction of nature. Love is undeniably relational. Love has a source and origin from which it flows. Love flows back to its source in the fruit it bears through connection with others.
I hope this opens and enriches the image of Jesus as the Vine and us as the branches. This is one of the seven ‘I am’ statements of Jesus in the gospel of St. John. “I am the Vine and my Father is the vine grower… I am the Vine and you are the branches.” The image is clear. Our life in love flows forth from the love of in the Father, through the Son, into ourselves through faith in the Lord Jesus. In Christ, we bear much fruit and without his love we can do nothing. Separated from the Vine, we can do nothing that bears the fruit of love.
Notice that Jesus does not claim to be the source of love, but a vine that grows from the love of the Father. The Father is the Vine grower. Jesus is the fruit and gift of the Father’s love that is given to unite us to the Father. It is an image of union, oneness with God through Christ, united in the Spirit. This is the union of redemptive love that breaks the disorder of independence and the illusion of self-sufficiency. The idea of independence or self-sufficiency may be comfortable and convenient, but it will not bear fruit apart from Jesus, the Vine.
Notice the Father prunes the branches of those who come to faith in Jesus. Pruning is a work of love. It serves to sever or discard that which is unnecessary and hinders the growth of maturing fruit. This is another effective image. Any good farmer or gardener knows the value of effective pruning. It is a necessary process to produce an effective and fruitful crop. Fruit trees for instance may have a full third of their blossoms pruned so that what remains will come to full stature. Branches growing downward are typically severed to remove excess weight from the large branch allowing the upward growing fruit to come to full size.
This is an effective image for a person growing in faith, or any relationship of love that seeks maturing or greater union. Inevitably through time, things that were formally fruitful for the growth of love will no longer be effective. They must be let go so new life in love may be realized. As a person grows in faith and the awareness of the grace of God, less mature ways of living must be surrendered for the sake of more mature ways of love and virtue. Love that is not growing or moving in its natural rhythm will not remain for long.
This is why Jesus uses the image of the branches separated from the vine. Conversion must take place on one or several levels as the relationship of faith matures through various stages of growth. Love necessitates some loss, some surrendering to realize itself. If a person is praying at middle age or later the same way they prayed in grade school, an adult relationship with God is not being realized. If a married couple of fifty years clings to honeymoon type expectations, something is amiss. Pruning is necessary to stimulate new growth, shedding old or ineffective ways that hinder maturing commitment.
Jesus says that those who remain in him with faith and love may ‘ask anything whatever you want, and it will be given you.’ That is a bold statement. Yet, those who remain in a maturing and pruned relationship with Jesus in the fruit of the Father’s love, will ask for things that nurture and support mature love, faith, and self-giving. This is not a free for all in whatever I want, it is what I seek and desire in God, in love, in mature faith that bears fruit in the will and life of God.
You are in God and God is in you. Bear good fruit in Jesus the Vine. Deeply connected to Jesus, accept the pruning of conversion that your love may give life to others as you give glory to God.
Father John Esper
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