[Salvation]

Jesus, the Vinedresser, Prunes Us

Pastor’s Column

5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

May 3, 2015 

“I am the true vine and my father is the vine grower.

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,

and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

                                                                        John 15:1-8 

         At one time in my life I was a regular visitor to the beautiful Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe up in Lafayette, Oregon. The monks there used to have grapevines on a large arbor over the entrance to their old church. They have since built a new sanctuary, but I remember how beautiful the old vines and branches were, and the gorgeous grapes hanging down there.  This was such a beautiful and biblical image, and so appropriate to the area, now the premier wine-growing spot in Oregon for Pinot Noir. 

         One day I came back to find that all this was seemingly gone!  I asked my spiritual advisor, who was the vinedresser there, what had happened, and he patiently explained that at certain times the Monks would do light pruning of the vines, and sometimes heavy pruning.  Without regular pruning, the vines would not bear fruit, or the fruit would be small and unacceptable.  As every gardener knows, regular pruning is essential to the long-term health of many plants. 

         Jesus is the vinedresser for each Christian who submits himself to him.  This insures that God will prune us, quite intentionally, on a regular basis.  The problem arises when we become too attached to the leaves!  We can come to think that we are beautiful just the way we are. We don’t want our beautiful leaves pruned, even though they may have stopped bearing fruit long ago!  Then we might be tempted to turn away from the Lord, asking him to leave us alone. But Jesus always knows what he is doing. 

         When God prunes us, it is often not easy for us to accept.  It becomes a matter of trust that God will work this loss to good in the end, for make no mistake about it, to have what seems like a healthy, leaf-filled branch of ours cut off before we see the new growth coming really does take an act of faith!  This action on God’s part can also leave us bitter if we don’t understand what God is about. 

         One of the main points of life is to bear fruit for the Lord, not just to take up space, not to just look pretty or have a great time.  Everything God permits in the life of a Christian will one day bear good fruit if we continue to allow the master gardener to regularly prune (trials, losses and difficulties), fertilize (spiritual reading, Mass attendance, prayer), and water (good works, the water of the Holy Spirit) in our lives.

                                                     Father Gary

[Salvation]

Reflections from Scott Hahn

On the Vine: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 05.01.15 |

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Readings:
Acts 9:26-31
Psalm 22:26-28, 30-32
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is the true vine that God intended Israel to be—the source of divine life and wisdom for the nations (see Sirach 24:17-24).

In baptism, each of us was joined to Him by the Holy Spirit. As a branch grows from a tree, our souls are to draw life from Him, nourished by His word and the Eucharist.

Paul in today’s First Reading seeks to be grafted onto the visible expression of Christ the true vine—His Church. Once the chief persecutor of the Church, he encounters initial resistance and suspicion. But he is known by his fruits, by his powerful witness to the Lord working in his life (see Matthew 7:16-20).

We too are commanded today to bear good fruits as His disciples, so that our lives give glory to God. Like Paul’s life, our lives must bear witness to His goodness.

Jesus cautions us, however, that if we’re bearing fruit, we can expect that God will ‘prune’ us—as a gardener trims and cuts back a plant so that it will grow stronger and bear even more fruit. He is teaching us today how to look at our sufferings and trials with the eyes of faith. We need to see our struggles as pruning, by which we are being disciplined and trained so that we can grow in holiness and bear fruits of righteousness (see Hebrews 12:4-11).

We need to always remain rooted in Him, as today’s Epistle tells us. We remain in Him by keeping His commandment of love, by pondering His words, letting them dwell richly in us (see Colossians 3:16), and by always seeking to do what pleases Him. In everything we must be guided by humility, remembering that apart from Him we can do nothing.

As we sing in today’s Psalm, we must fulfill our vows, turning to the Lord in worship, proclaiming his praises, until all families come to know His justice in their lives.