Reflection on the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31, I John 3:18-24, John 15:1-8

This Gospel reading is so familiar to us: “The vine and the branches, I am the vine and you are the branches.” Jesus did not make up the image, of course. Jesus, as well as the Jewish community of his time, would have been very familiar with the metaphor of vine in their own scriptures. Isaiah has a song about his friend’s vineyard; Jeremiah has a sentence about a choice vine turning into a spurious vine, an untrue vine. Ezekiel has a short chapter about the vine. The people of Jesus’ time lived in a land where grapevines flourished. They saw vines more than we do, and some of his listeners probably tended vineyards.

The vine in the Hebrew Scriptures is the people of God, the community. Therefore, in Jesus’ time, the vine was the community with whom he lived and with whom he spoke.  

It seems to me that the new piece Jesus adds to the metaphor is that he is the vine.  Jesus is part of the community. The one whom he calls Father is the vine grower, the one who takes care of the vine. Jesus has been the instrument of God in the community in his own days. He has spoken to the people over and over again a message: Love one another. His word lives in them. You are already pruned, Jesus says, because of the word I spoke to you. The people have heard Jesus’ word and have seen it in his actions. Jesus is concerned about someone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed or suffering seizures. He also tries to get society’s values straight. 

The last line of the Gospel passage today says, “By this is my God glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” It seems to me that being Jesus’ disciples asks two things of us: that we believe and trust in our own personal intimacy with God, and that we become increasingly aware of the human needs around us and of the needs of all of creation.

That is how Jesus was. Jesus was so aware of his union with God that he could use the intimate word, Abba, to speak of God. He somehow was conscious of the Divine residing at the depths of humanity (and the whole creation). That divinity is accessible to us. We need to continue to become more and more aware of our own oneness with God.  At the same time, when we look at Jesus, we know that his intimacy with God urged him to move out to the neighbor, to the person in need. His life was one of selfless service to others. That, as we know, is our call, too.  Many of us cannot do what we once could do. Each of us knows, however, how to reach out to the other, in whatever way is available to us.

The vine is the community. We do not act alone. We humans exist in community. Our liturgy last Sunday and the Foundation Day event made it abundantly clear that we in Loretto exist in community. Thinking back over our history illustrates how we did so much of what we did and continue to do in community, together.

Let us continue to bear fruit in the ways that are given to us and know ourselves as disciples of Jesus.