This morning’s Gospel reading is John 15:1–8:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. 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. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
What does it mean to be a branch on the vine? Oddly enough, when reading this Gospel today and the reading from Acts, my mind first jumped to the film Guardians of the Galaxy and its first sequel. (I haven't seen the third film yet.) While I'm not normally a fan of comic-book fims, and Guardians suffers from the same clichés of that genre, it has enough quirkiness and self-deprecation to entertain.
In the first film, the alien Groot was a sentient vine-like tree creature who dies while shielding his friends from the impact of a crash. In the epilogue, a twig from Groot is planted and comes to life, but in the second film it becomes apparent that this creature is not the same in character as its parent. It is its own character, with different motivations and desires, which of course adds to the weird fun.
This sounds like a silly analogy, and it may be, but it is one demonstration of Christ's analogy in today's Gospel. In this passage from John, Jesus uses this analogy to talk about connections. On one level, the 'vine' speaks to our very existence and connectedness not just to God but to each other. God is the Creator, Jesus His Son, and we are connected to the Trinity through that. It is our identity and our destiny, so long as we recognize it and choose to remain connected, because God never forces Himself on anyone. He loves us so much that He allows us to choose to connect to Him in our hearts, or to reject him.
Once again, this takes us back to the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam and Eve. They chose rebellion rather than obedience, usurpation over service, and rejected the authority of the Lord in favor of controlling His creation. They planted their roots elsewhere, which is the impulse of Original Sin. In this Gospel reading, Jesus warns His disciples and us that this choice will produce no fruit, but rather eventually result in our spiritual withering, and eternal death.
Adam and Eve rejected that connectedness, choosing themselves over Him. That connectedness is the point. The connection between the vine and the branch provides life and strength, allowing the branches to grow and bear proper fruit. We gain strength from our connection to the Lord and also to each other. Through this we become one with God and with each other, to the extent that we all fully cooperate in the process.
Sin induces us to look for our own path, to plant our own roots and go our own way. What happens when we rebel, cut our branch off from the vine, and plant ourselves elsewhere? Just as with the twig of Groot, we start to become someone else, something else. We are not just cut off from the Lord, but from our nutrients and the guiding formation that allows us to know who we really are and what fruit we should bear.
That itself is a sin, and leads us to more sinfulness. We could refer to the parable of the prodigal son here too, who emulated Adam and Eve and demanded his inheritance from his father while his father was still alive. That is crueler than it sounds; the younger son basically wanted the father dead and half of his wealth now rather than his father's love. That was sinful, and it led to the younger son's rapid dissipation and despair. Without the father, who was he? Without his father's home, how could he thrive?
The prodigal son repented of his sins and returned home to his father's love, offering to become a slave to the father but instead was restored to his proper place.
What happens when we repent of our sins?
Our first reading from Acts 9 picks up the story of Saul after his road to Damascus conversion. Saul had repented at this point but the Apostles had not heard that, and tested him to be sure of his sincerity. Saul had conducted vicious reprisals against the nascent Church, after all, and was responsible for its first known martyr after Jesus, Stephen the deacon. If anyone had cut himself off from the vine of Christ, it was Saul.
And yet Saul became the Church's greatest theologian as Paul the Apostle. He flourished because Paul returned to the vine. Having repented of his many sins, Paul grafted himself back onto Christ, to use the same analogy. Having done so, Paul surrendered himself to Christ's authority and to the connectedness of the Church. Paul bore more fruit than anyone in his time among the Gentiles, having reconnected to the love and the will of Christ in unfolding the good news of eternal salvation.
This lesson reminds us that the Church grows from Christ, and remains ready to wrap its arms around us when we put our own souls in danger of a crash. We cannot survive the eternal spiritual battle without the Lord and His salvation, nor are we lost if we cut ourselves off from it. We can choose to return to it no matter how we have sinned, and the Lord stands ready to graft us back onto the vine and produce bountiful fruit through us as we cooperate in His will. The Tree of Christ is a haven, a home, and in it we are all the much-loved prodigal sons and daughters of the Lord.
Previous reflections on these readings:
The front page image is painting from an unknown artist depicting Christ as the Tree of Jesus, created before 1600. Via Wikimedia Commons.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
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