Homily, 4-28-24; 5th Sunday of Easter:
Many of you know that I make wine as a hobby. It started way back in 1989. For most of those 35 years, I have purchased grapes grown in California and shipped into a little store down in Detroit across from the Produce Terminal. It is always a fun experience going down to the California Wine Grape Store to select grapes from the many varieties for that year’s vintage, but I always dreamed of growing my own grapes. And finally, eight years ago, I had the opportunity to plant my own little vineyard with 150 vines. It has been quite a learning experience figuring out how to combat fungus issues and Japanese beetles and finally realizing that the only effective way to keep the birds from eating the grapes is to cover the vines with netting. I have also been on a slow learning curve with regard to pruning the grape vines. I now have a better appreciation for today’s gospel passage.
At first, I pruned very sparingly and I ended up with very lush vines, but limited grapes and unhealthy vines. Non-productive branches took up much of the energy of the vine and the excess leaves blocked the sun from getting to the grapes to help them ripen and they prevented air movement to help prevent disease. A grape vine, when it is properly pruned in the winter or early spring, looks pretty stark; a mere shadow of what it looked like the previous fall.
I now prune with three purposes in mind. First non-productive branches are cut away. Second, some productive branches are pruned back so that they produce more fruit this year and stimulate new growth in the future, And, third, some branches are positioned and trained to provide new stronger branches for the following year. And so it is when the Father, the vine grower in our parable, prunes us, the branches in the Church.
There are members of the Church who are members in name only, who do not produce fruit. They are like those non-productive branches that are to be pruned away completely to be burned up in the fire. They might say they have faith, but their actions do not validate it. I ran across an interesting quote from St. Gregory the Great—I posted it on Facebook last week. He wrote: “Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock, whether you know him, whether the light of his truth shines in your minds. I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him, but by love; not by mere conviction, but by action.” We should ask ourselves if we truly belong to the flock. Do we produce good fruits? Are we securely attached to the vine? There are those, including many politicians, who claim to be Catholics and yet openly defy Church teaching. They are unproductive, cause harm to the vine, and put themselves in a position that deserves to be pruned away.
And if we do produce fruit, we can expect to undergo pruning so that we will produce even more, and better fruit. St. John Chrysostom wrote: “And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” All of us require pruning. Who is so good that they cannot be made better? Leaves and unfruitful shoots will be removed from the branches so that the Son—S-O-N—can shine on us more fully to help us ripen to be the best we can be and so the Spirit can flow through the branches and keep us free from the diseases of the world. As we produce good fruit, we will encourage new growth in the Church. So, if we can use a good pruning, will we work at it ourselves? Will we discipline ourselves by cutting away some of the world’s distractions so we can better focus on doing God’s will. Like beautiful foliage, will we cut away the excess in our lives, our misplaced focus on the things of the world, so that we can be in a better position to produce good fruit? If we do not do our own pruning, God will prune us Himself. It is sometimes considered an explanation for why suffering exists, why God allows it to occur, either to an individual or a society. And if He prunes us by trials and sufferings, how will we accept it? How will we respond? Discipline and pruning can be painful, but they can stimulate us to be more fruitful.
And sometimes God’s pruning can simply mean repositioning us and training us so that we will be equipped to produce fruit in the future. Maybe it is putting people in our lives to help us find our true vocation. Maybe it is presenting us with events that lead us to a dramatic conversion.
Much like my own pruning practices, God can cut away the unfruitful, He can help the fruitful to be ever more productive, and He can prepare the vine, the Church, for the future.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches; we share the same nature. But in our parable, we see that the Father does not need to care for the vine, just the branches. Jesus can take care of Himself; He is one with the Father. We are one with Jesus, the vine, much like we are all one body, the Church with Jesus as the Head. We can do nothing on our own, without staying connected to Jesus.
St. John tells us in our second reading today: “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. … Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them.” And St. Augustine wrote: “For then may His words be said to abide in us, when we do what He has commanded, and love what He has promised. But when His words abide in the memory, and are not found in the life, the branch is not accounted to be in the vine, because it derives no life from its root.” We must stay connected to the vine if we are to do anything of true value. If we cut ourselves off, it is not good for us, nor for the Church. Jesus and the Church offer us support and nourishment. Jesus gives us life.
Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. Let us pray for the wisdom and grace to discipline ourselves, to accept suffering, to follow Jesus who is the way, to pursue His truth, and always to remember that we are dependent on Him for our life. Let us always strive to follow God’s will so that we can produce good fruit for the Kingdom.