Christ, the True Vine

 Reflection on Today's Readings,  5th Sunday of Easter, Year B, May 2nd, 2021
Texts: Acts 9:26-31; Ps. 22:26--28.30-32; 1John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8
Jesus Christ is our life and strength, withou Him we have no life and strength in us. Jesus Christ emphasises that He is our life when He says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." He is the true vine because He is God, the life Himself. St. John says, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).   He affirms it in another place thus: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). St. Paul says, "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Outside Jesus Christ, we have no life.
Jesus Christ is the true Vine; we are his branches. We are in Christ by keeping his commandments.  St. John, in the second reading, says, "And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them." Faith in Jesus Christ unites us with Him. By faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified and make peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Having faith in Jesus Christ, we welcome Him into our individual lives; He lives in us and we live in Him.
St. John also adds that to remain in Christ we must love our neighbours. He tells us that such love must not be in words alone but also in truth and deeds. He says, "Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth." We love in truth, when our love is genuine. St. Paul tells us what it means  to love in truth: "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord" (Rom. 12:9-11). We love in deeds when our love manifests in action.
When we love in truth and in deeds, we seek to please God and it makes us stand in confidence before God. We are able to stand in confidence before God because by seeking to please God we have conquered guilty conscience and it does not longer prick or judge us. Hence, St. John says, "By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." When keep God's commandments, we are right with Him.
Another benefit for keeping God's commandments is that it makes our prayers win favourable answers from God. In the second reading, St. John says, "we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."
When we are in Jesus Christ, we bear fruits. The fruits, here , are virtues and good deeds. If we are faithful to the keeping of God's commandments, we will bear fruits. The fruits are the byproducts of our faithfulness to God's commandments. We become unfruitful branches when our profession of faith in Jesus Christ and love of neighbours is only in words and do not translate into action. Unfruitful branches are those whose faith is dead and love of neighbours is not genuine. St. James says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (2:14-17). Let us enliven our faith and make our love genuine by keeping God's commandments.

God our Father, make us fervent in keeping Your commandments so that we will always remain in Your Son and our faith will be enlivened, our hope reinforced and our love genuine. Amen

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke