Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 6^th 2012)      

Gospel: John 15:1-8

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Is my life grafted onto Jesus, or are there other things that I consider more fundamental in giving meaning and direction to my life?

2. Am I involved in behaviour, activities or projects that seem to be unproductive, or to lead nowhere?

3. Are there relationships, modes of behaviour, or fixations that ought to be "pruned away" from my life, so that I can focus on what is essential?

4. Am I inclined to believe that my own projects are of great importance? Do I tend to rely a lot on my own efforts and abilities?

5. In what way can I make Jesus the fount of life that makes all of my efforts ultimately fruitful?

"We are inclined to think that we have a vital role in the world, and that our activities are of great significance. But we cannot do anything without the Lord! Our life is a series of zeroes, of inconsistent schemes, of vain projects. Only Christ can give significance to our works! Only the Risen One can give eternity to our lives! Without Christ nothing else matters!"

To live productive lives, we must be grafted onto the source of true life

To live a life without bearing fruit of some sort is frustrating. We cannot live for nothing, and one of the most traumatic experiences of life is the feeling of being useless. The Gospel on Sunday addresses this need and tells us how to live productive lives. The first basic requirement is to be grafted onto true life. Often we are grafted onto things that do not give life. Jesus says "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser."  We need to be attached to the true fount of life. In reality we are often grafted to false sources of "life", and as a result our efforts to bear fruit depend completely on our own impoverished resources. But the Gospel also speaks of branches that are attached to Christ but still fail to bear fruit. We must be capable of realizing when something is a waste of time and is unproductive. Honesty with ourselves is of fundamental importance in this regard. At a human, relational and ecclesial level, how often it is the case that simple courage is needed to say "This line of action is a waste of time!" We continue with projects that are of little use. We do things because "that is the way things are always done around here". We organize religious conferences where there are more people on the stage than in the audience. In other words we persist stubbornly with projects that are unproductive, shoots that have already been cut off by the Father.

Life is a journey towards the essential. Constant pruning is needed

The Gospel tells us that the Father cuts away the branch that bears no fruit, and he prunes the branch that does bear fruit. In either case, the Father cuts! Life is a journey towards the essential. It involves a process of stripping away that which is non-essential and becoming more and more simply conformed to the Lord Jesus. Many people suffer from a kind of "spiritual obesity" in which their minds are filled with notions and principles that simply distract from what is fundamental. A good analogy is the world of travel. When we are at the airport we often see people carrying with them books, gadgets, and enormous suitcases, as if they were going to a destination that had nothing of its own. A good traveller has a small suitcase, and the more he travels the smaller it gets, until he can travel with only that which is indispensable. The more we are reduced to what is essential, the more agile we become, and the quicker we pass through the customs of life. The more we focus on our destination, and the less on where we have come from, the more sap that will run though our branches. The sap of the vine will not be wasted in multiple lateral branches that go nowhere.

Without the Lord, we cannot bear genuine fruit

The Gospel goes on: "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." This is a major blow to the notions we have about ourselves! We are inclined to think that we have a vital role in the world, and that our efforts are of great significance. But we cannot do anything without the Lord. Our life is a series of zeroes, of inconsistent schemes, of vain projects. Only Christ can give significance to our works! Only the Risen One can give eternity to our lives! Without Christ nothing matters.

            Sometimes we are so caught up with the things that we have to get done, and prayer is left till the end of the list, if there is any time for it at all. The proper way to live life is to be attentive to Christ, so that we can become like arrows shot from his bow, instead of embarking on a frenzy of disordered initiatives of our own that cause more chaos than anything else. Christ must be put first, and then everything else must be made to follow. We tend to lament the fact that things are going badly in the church. We bemoan the fact we have few vocations, that we have a shortage of catechists, that marriages are breaking down. But all of these difficulties arise from the fact that we have continued to focus our efforts on things that do not bear fruit. We have failed to put the true vine at the centre of things, and we have not cut away that which is useless. We have not focussed on the essential, eliminating the dross, loving only Him with all of our strength.

            The text goes on to tell us that if we remain in him, then we can ask whatever we want and we will receive it. Incredible! How happy life would be if we could desire beautiful things, ask for them, and receive them! This emphasizes that we are not destined for frustration, but for the production of great fruit. Let us be pruned! Let us be stripped down to what is essential! The futility of our efforts will be transformed into great fruitfulness when we are grafted onto Christ.