May 3, 2015

5^th Sunday of Easter B

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

What does it mean to be Easter people? One response certainly is to be joyful people. Those who see us must come away realizing that we are imbued with what Jesus’ love is all about. We have the Good News…that God loves us all the time…and we should be eager to share it. So I ask myself how I am doing. Am I more concerned with ‘me’ being the center of my world or am I sharing God’s love?

The first reading from Acts of the Apostles gives us the account of the fireball Paul. In this ninth chapter of Acts Paul is working against the Church: Luke starts out, “Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.” Then the Lord steps in, changes his name to Paul and calls him to be His disciple. After two weeks of ‘retreat’ Paul arrives at Jerusalem and the disciples are naturally afraid. “Isn’t this the one who was persecuting Christians?” Yes. The Lord entered His life and He is now speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. How bold am I in admitting the presence of God in my life? How am I being a witness to Jesus’ teachings? What am I to do?

John responds in the second reading so succinctly: “Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.” He tells us that keeping the commandments of God is actually twofold: Each person must believe which means surrendering to Jesus as Son of God in the flesh and second, love one another just as He commanded us.

Is this easy, absolutely not…is it optional, absolutely not…does God help me in this, absolutely. Jesus spells this out in the Gospel. He uses the image of the vine and the branches. He presented the image on the night before He died, at a time when He wanted to impress upon the apostles and each person the most fundamental aspects of His teachings.

After Jesus declared that
“I am the vine, you are the branches,” He practically applied this image to each follower, “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me…Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.” God does not ask anyone to do anything without supplying help needed for ‘task at hand.’ So to be fruitful, I need to remain on the vine. I need to continue to be connected to the Lord each day. As Sunday Homily Helps from St. Anthony Messenger Press says, “The image of Jesus as the vine and ourselves as branches reminds us that salvation and wholeness—and indeed all good things that we experience and produce—come not because of what we do, but because of what we are and where we are. There is so much grace in these words for people who are tired out from all their work or discouraged by the fact that they do not feel they are good enough for God or that they have not done enough for him. Perhaps there is no better image of the Christian faith than this.”

Sometimes I feel that I have to come up with the plan…I’m the one that has to solve this problem…I’m the one who has to convince that family member or friend who no longer goes to Sunday mass? Well this poses another question, ‘What am I allowing God to do? How can I continue to be connected to Him, the vine? Am I getting all the nutrients and moisture that I need? Am I remaining connected with God?

So often it is very easy to say something, but not necessarily live it. John said this in the second reading … “let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” Am I living what I say? God will give me and each person exactly what they need in every situation IF… there is an IF there and it’s the second last sentence in the Gospel, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” What do I do when the storm winds come, I cry out for God’s help me…I beg God for a cure…I say, ‘God this is the way that You have to act.’ AND I get angry with God when He doesn’t act accordingly. Then it’s all about me and not about this loving God who is always present.

Msgr. Eugene Lauer in Sunday Morning Insights says it in this way, “We get angry with God when a trusted friend suddenly betrays a confidence. We are incensed with God when a dishonest person succeeds where we have failed. We are bitter when a loved one dies whom we desperately wanted to have with us a little while longer. And, we forget the if-clause.

It seems to me that the practical application of the if-clause would go something like this. If we ‘live in Christ,’ we will know how to ask and what to ask for. We will not presume that our goals and our carefully figured out conclusions are exactly what should happen.

If ‘Christ’s words stay part of us,’ then we will gradually come to know that the primary thing that we pray for is God’s presence in our trials, in our present need, and not for this specific cure, this specific solution, getting this particular job. We will pray that our relationship with God will be so intensified as we go through the trying situation that we will be able to face it and deal with it, no matter what happens.

The if-clause is far more important in authentic Christian spiritualty that the declarative statement that follows: ‘If you live in me, and my words stay part of you, you may ask what you will—it will be done for you.”

It seems to me that in every instance I must challenge myself with the question, ‘Am I thinking and acting as Christ would? Or have I allowed myself to be taken in by the values and slogans of the materialistic world. Is my thinking and way of acting any different from that of those who have no religion or a ‘convenient’ religion?

So I reflect on:

• How am I developing my own relationship with Christ?
• What important practices are important for me in doing this?
• Jesus said I must have love for all others, how does my relationship to others play in my relationship with God?
• What three sayings of Jesus are especially important to me? How do I depend on them?
• How often am I tempted to observe rather than live a Christian life? Why or why not?
• How does following Jesus give me the chance to really be who I am?

Sacred Space 2015 asks,

“I picture a grapevine with its branches, large and small. Which branch mirrors me? Is my branch healthy or a bit withered and tired? Can I accept the attention of the vine-grower as he prunes this branch? Can I trust that my branch can then bear much fruit at harvest time?”