Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
This past Saturday, as part of Jesus Day (a morning retreat for students preparing for First Communion), I helped lead a discussion with the students on what the deeper meaning of Jesus’ metaphor used in today’s Gospel, “I am the vine, and you are the branches” may be. Their insights were so profound and moving, I think I’ll let their words write the reflection for today.
I found myself deeply touched and impressed with the depth of understanding our 2nd graders possessed. They told me that this story is about your life and the choices you make. Through their discussion they shared that they think the vine is our life and the only way it can grow is if we follow God.
When we got to the discussion of the dead branch, they said they think this is the branch that is growing out of our sins. It’s not letting any life in. They shared that the gardener coming to prune the dead branches away is God, helping us clear away our sins. We even touched on the connection to reconciliation and how the sacrament is us and God working together to prune our branches. Just like in our gardens, we must prune out the dead branches (our sinfulness) to put life and energy into the rest of the branch and bear good fruit.
If you’ve ever grown tomatoes, you may be familiar with the practice of pulling off the suckers. I learned this the hard way last growing season when my plants were HUGE but were not giving us tomatoes. My dad explained to me that the tomato plant will put out new shoots all along the branches. If you do not take the time to pull these off, the plant will continue to grow more branches but does not have energy and nutrients left to produce fruit. Just like in our life, to put energy into producing good fruit, we must cut other things off. We have to say no to worldly distractions and to sin so that we can produce fruit.
My prayer today is that each of us may take some time in prayer to ask God what branches we need to prune. May we then begin the hard but essential work of removing those sinful branches, those branches that aren’t bearing fruit in our lives. As my second graders told me – this part is not going to be easy. They shared how changing a sinful habit can be hard and can sometimes take several tries. But with prayer, reception of the sacraments and the support of our community we can prune those dead branches and bear incredible fruit. Amen.
—AJ Grimm