SCRIPTURE:
1ST READING: ACTS 9:26-31
2ND READING: 1 JOHN 3:18-24
GOSPEL: JOHN 15:1-8
Today and throughout the month of May, we ask our heavenly Mother Mary to share with all of us and especially our young people her love, her willingness to sacrifice, and her unbounded generosity. Her words to the angel at the Annunciation are the model for all of us who answer the Lord’s call; “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.”
Much of Jesus’ message to us obviously came to him from his mother. Take for example the words from today’s second reading from 1 John-“Children, love one another, don’t just talk about it.” Can’t you just see Mary telling this to Jesus and the neighbors children as they played about the doorstep in Nazareth?
Once upon a time there was a little boy who, in an outburst of temper, shouted to his mother, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” Then, fearing punishment, he ran up into the hillside where he shouted into the valley, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” Back from the valley came the echo, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”
This startled the boy and he ran back to the house and told his mother that a mean voice was coming out of the valley saying, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” So his mother took him to the hillside and told him to shout, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” When he did, the boy heard the voice from the valley respond, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
The lesson of this story is that hate begets hate. Love begets love. Live a life connected to the vine and you get love. 2 In order to experience the joy of a good, abundant life with Jesus, we need to put into practice what He teaches us through the Good News. We need to live life in union with Jesus, and be truly grateful to God for His steadfast and abundant love. Mary knew this lesson well and she is our inspiration of what Jesus teaches us.
No one could understand better than Mary, Jesus’ parable of the vine and the branches. She, who gave nourishment, strength, and growth to Jesus in her womb, can certainly understand how we are given spiritual life, strength, and growth by being healthy and productive branches on his vine.
The intimate connection is more than just a figure of speech. We are not just like branches on His vine. Jesus has an intimate union with us, his disciples. The vine is a symbol of this infinitely close union. We actually share a common life, just as a vine and its branches share each other.
He abides in us, and we in Him, both as individuals and as community. Since the Church is Christ’s body, He expects the Church, yes, you and me, to bear much fruit. Yes, in fact we are all in this together and we help one another.
We are given ways to do this. We are nourished through the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist where we receive in us Jesus’ body and blood. We are nourished through His word and through each other. We are offered opportunities through the programs in our parish to strengthen our faith so that we can be branches who are healthy and bear fruit by spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.
To understand the gospel today, we need to understand the image. The vineyard is the kingdom, the reign of God that Jesus came to inaugurate. The gardener or the vinedresser is God, the Father. It is God who plants , prunes, tills, and tends the garden. The true vine is Jesus. The branches are the disciples, us, followers of Jesus, called to learn to really love God, as Mary loves God.
We are pruned by self awareness, by the word of God that helps us see ourselves as we are, that leads us to repentance and conversion. I can’t help but think that Mary in heaven is not indifferent to our needs here on earth. As a mother takes care of her children she is taking care of us. Just as she told Jesus “they have no wine” at the marriage feast in Cana, she is telling Jesus today, “Son, my children need you” and He is responding through an invitation to join with him in praising God the Father.
The more we seek to imitate Jesus, the more we will become like Him in our daily lives. If we are trying to think the way He thinks, then gradually we will grow into having a mind-set like His, and it will become our prevailing way of thinking, drawing nourishment from the vine making us fruitful branches.
If our thoughts, actions, our words are mostly negative, then we will be considered by others as negative persons, always finding fault with something or someone, usually not very happy with life. With this kind of attitude, we become like the branch that withers, that is gathered up and thrown into the fire.
This brings home the point- A little seed lay on the ground and soon began to sprout. Now which of all the flowers around, it thought, shall I come out? (The seed could be heard saying, “I don’t care to be a rose, a rose has thorns. I don’t care to be a lily, a lily is too colorless. I don’t care to be a violet, a violet is too small and it grows to close to the ground.) And so it criticized each flower, that supercilious seed, Until it woke one summer hour and found itself a weed.
If we allow God’s Spirit to cultivate in us positive thoughts we will become positive persons living our lives mostly in peace and joy. Yes, we will still have our trials, our crosses to bear as human beings, but our spiritual lives will get us through those tough times. The more we work at becoming like Jesus in our thoughts and behavior, the more we will succeed in bearing fruit and others will see Jesus in us.
You know, this Christian life is not so bad, is it? In fact, I can’t imagine any life that is better. Have you ever stopped after you have done something, or thought something, prayed for someone, made a sandwich for the homeless, walked for hunger, attended a parish function, came to Mass to worship, thought about God, or wondered how you might get closer to God?
When I am producing fruit, doing good for someone or something, when I know that I have pleased God, I find a smile on my face and I see a smile on God. Sometimes this smile comes from a loving parent, the laughter of a little child, it can be the warmth of the sun on my face, it could be the smile like on the front of a box of Raisin Bran.
Sometimes, it is not a complete picture but only the smile, a big toothy grin with plump cheeks and squinty eyes. I know we all like imagining God pleased, and even more knowing that we had something to do with it. Of course, the only way you can please him is being united with His Son, Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Say; “I am the vine, you are the branches.” “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Now, I can’t help but think about the story I told a little earlier. The next time you find yourself in a time of trial, in the heat of a bad moment, or even when you know that you have pleased God, find yourself a hillside and yell out in the valley, “I love you. I love you, I love you”. Don’t be surprised to find Mary and Jesus standing next to you and don’t be surprised to hear God echoing back, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”