Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
I love Christ’s image of the vine in today’s Gospel. Assuming he was referring to grape vines, the picture is very Eucharistic. I see a beautiful reminder of the oneness that we enjoy with God. I also find hope in knowing that my fruitfulness as a disciple flows from abiding in the perfection of eternal love. May each of us today awaken to the reality of our abiding, become caught up in the flow of divine love, and naturally become more fruitful in our discipleship.
Notice the repetition of the verb remain in our text. That word carries the connotation of abiding, which has an inherent permanence about it. Even though it sounds like Jesus is admonishing us, as if we have a choice to make, I think his words are meant to awaken us to the reality of the state we’re in already. As disciples, we are one with Christ, we are branches in the True Vine.
Jesus employs the metaphor of the vine to help us understand the oneness, the unity, that we have with and in God and with all other humans. I’m reading a wonderful book right now, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind – a New Perspective on Christ and His Message, by Cynthia Bourgeault (Shambhala Publications, 2008). In reflecting on Jesus’ vine imagery, she says, “What he has in mind is a complete, mutual indwelling: I am in God, God is in you, you are in God, we are in each other.” Just as a vine and its branches are one organism, with water and nutrients flowing freely throughout, so are we one with each other in God with divine love flowing freely. Bourgeault refers back to John 10:30 where Jesus declares, “the Father and I are one.” She observes, “he [Jesus] does not see this as an exclusive privilege but as something shared by all human beings. There is no separation between humans and God because of this mutual interabiding which expresses the indivisible reality of divine love. We flow into God – and God into us – because it is the nature of love to flow. And as we give ourselves into one another in this fashion, the vine gives life and coherence to the branch while the branch makes visible what the vine is.” What a beautiful picture of the free-flowing reality of God’s love!
An actual branch bears fruit, produce grapes, because the vine supplies it with the water and nutrients it needs. Just so, God’s love flowing from Jesus the Vine through us, the branches, gives us abundantly more than we need to produce good fruit. Just as a branch does not work at trying to become fruitful on its own, so also, we do not rely on our own strength and limited resources to be fruitful disciples. Grapes are not produced apart from the vine; the fruit of discipleship is not visible apart from the Vine. From the flow of divine love naturally comes fruitful discipleship. Today can we simply get caught up in the flow and trust God to make us fruitful? A branch that is separated from the vine withers and dies. Thanks be to God that we are united with God in a permanent abiding because Jesus the Vine anchors us in the divine!
We experience this oneness with God in Christ through the Eucharist. Perhaps we can meditate a bit today on the “fruit of the vine” and what that symbol teaches us about our abiding in Christ. Let us pray in gratitude today for what that wine becomes – the Precious Blood of Christ poured out for us that we might have fruitful life in him.
Today, out of our oneness with God, may divine love flow from us to our every neighbor, and may we bear fruit that truly lasts. My closing prayer comes from Ephesians 3:20. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen!
Elizabeth Wourms