5th Sunday of Easter: "Remain in Me"

 

"Remain in me, as I remain in you"

John 15: 1-8

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm

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Almighty ever-living God,

constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us,

that those you were pleased to make new in Holy Baptism,

may, under your protective care, bear much fruit

and come to the joys of life eternal.

(Collect of Mass)

Technology, for all its wonderful potential, is a part of our lives that we feel we can never go without, or so we assume.  Like automobiles, telephones, television, the internet, cell phones, and all the many forms of “social media,” which have become far more contentious than inspiring, have found themselves forever embedded in the human experience.  For all the many ways that we find ourselves connected with other people through technology, there have been many analyses that have shown us it has the potential to draw us farther away from one another.  We become isolated in our virtual worlds and suffer the pain of great loneliness relying on false relationships.

The essential human connection of looking at another person, hearing the tone of their voice, responding to their gestures, a friendly handshake, a laugh, a compassionate hug, none of that is possible through technology. Even in this time of “zoom” and face time meetings, it just isn’t the same as human presence.  God did not create the human being as a virtual machine but as a living and organic person who finds fulfillment through other human contact.

Our Gospel this Sunday presents another favorite Christian image of Jesus as the vine and the branches: “I am the true vine . . . remain in me as I in you . . . you are the branches.”  If you recall last week, we heard Jesus present himself as the “Good (noble) Shepherd.”  Such allegories are most helpful as we recognize the risen Christ is not visible to our human eyes, but we are able to understand how he is present to us through relationship. Our readings this Sunday all provide a means to do that.

Our first reading from Acts relates the problem of Saul as the most controversial of Christian converts. Saul, now Paul, had experienced an unexpected vision of Jesus that radically changed the direction of his life. He was no stranger to the Christian community, and they rightly feared him as a danger before his conversion. So, why would God choose this fierce enemy of the early Christian followers to be now his messenger of salvation?  The suspicion of the Apostles is understandable: this must be a trick, a way for Paul to infiltrate the community of disciples and destroy them from within!

What ultimately changed Paul, the Apostles and history, though, was a now established relationship with each of them and with the will of the Holy Spirit as they experienced it.  United in the faith, the mission of Christ can now be carried out in its fullness as we read that Paul was embraced as a fellow missionary and traveled freely through Jerusalem with the Apostles, despite opposition from Greek speaking opponents.

As that mission grows, it opens new relationships with the God of Israel to the larger world, the gentile communities far and wide.  Everywhere Paul went he labored to establish communities of convicted Christians who now embrace the new Way shown to them and connect them with one another in love and selfless service after the example of Jesus.  As we know, thousands even went to their deaths rather than deny this new relationship they had experienced with Christ and his disciples.  And the Church expanded its mission and continues to our own day.  Not without human sin and flaws of course but continually attached to the vine of Christ and drawing life from the Spirit.

The beautiful image Jesus uses today is that which reinforces the necessity of our attachment to the grace of God, his very life.  The vine and branches tell us that Jesus is the vine, his Father is the vine grower, and that the mystery of his work is that we are called to grow in the grace he offers us.  We must remain in him for away from Christ, “we can do nothing . . . If you remain in me and my words remain in you . . . you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

As wandering sheep, the shepherd goes in search of us lest danger and temptation pull us farther away from the source of life. The same is true if we detach ourselves from the source of life who is a vine which pumps his grace and life in us to bear fruit in the Christian journey.

Jesus reminds us that he and he alone is the source of true life and unity.  In Christ alone we see the Father work and it is best for us to remain attached to the vine of Christ lest we wither and die apart from him.  Attached to the vine the good we do will be rooted in his Gospel and by its power will bear much fruit.

Think of Paul’s experience which began along the road.  Remember Paul’s violent actions towards the followers of Jesus and his now powerful conversion.  Such things begin with a new awareness but take time to reform and reshape.  Through sacrifice and prayer, Paul became a new man as Jesus called him to graft the branches of new believers on to himself as the vine.

To keep the commandments of love is our ultimate goal each day.  Attached to the vine of Christ in and through his Church is to stay constantly at 100% power and to never be unplugged from the source of life itself.  There we draw life from his word, the sacraments, and from the inspiration and support of a Spirit filled community.  Life is here, not there.  Truth is here, not there.

The greatest good we do in the name of Christ always becomes greater than we may even realize.  We encounter the living Christ each Sunday at the Eucharist, where we draw the life, he promises. We see this in the ministry of the Saints, and we know it if we simply look around at the generosity and sacrifice of others for the sake of a common good in his name.