I AM THE VINE...

John 15:1-8

In today’s gospel Jesus says of Himself as the true vine and we are the branches. For the Jews, the vine figure is rich in meaning with religious connotations not only because the land of Israel is covered with numerous vineyards, but also because it is used several times in the bible. Like for example, Isaiah speaks of the house of Israel as: “the vineyard of the Lord;” Jeremiah says that God has planted Israel “as His chosen vine.”

When Jesus calls Himself the ‘true vine’ and calls us ‘the branches,’ he teaches us that our spiritual inheritance and spiritual nourishment comes from Him alone.  We receive our spiritual life of grace from our connection with Him. We cannot be saved unless we establish an intimate living relationship with Him. If we disconnect ourselves from Him we are spiritually worthless for He says, “without me you can do nothing.’

This connection with Him must results in great fruitfulness. For we cannot be saved by simply claiming we are Christians. Our life must bear fruit. If you have been a gardener you probably know how to take care of flowers. When I was a gardener at the Seminary I loved to grow and tend roses. I spent early mornings either watering or putting fertilizer around the plants or pruning. With pruning scissors, I would cut off a lot of branches from the plants. After pruning, the rose garden looked like it just had a terrible haircut. It did not look neat at all. However, after some days new branches came out and at the height of the flowering season, full and beautiful roses of all colors. Pruning does wonders.

Jesus uses this word “prune” as to tell us that pruning is one of the consequences of our relationship with him. He says: “”I am the vine and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit and everyone that does he prunes so it bears more fruit.” The dictionary defines the word pruning as trimming by cutting off unnecessary or unwanted parts. This morning, Jesus call us to be aware of things in us that need to be pruned. The question each one of us should ask himself or herself is: what is the unnecessary in me that should be pruned so that my union with Jesus, the true vine, will grow and be more fruitful?