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.”
Saint John is alone in giving us the image of the vine and the branches. This powerful image describes the intimate and very personal connection of each Christian to Jesus.
When I was a boy we had a grape vine in our backyard. My great grandmother gave us the enormous root ball of this vine. Dad dug it up and transplanted it to our lot, then built a trellis over it. The trellis was perhaps five feet long and three feet high; the vine overwhelmed it during that first summer. It was just a tangle of branches and leaves and, by the second year, a lot of broken branches.
It wasn't hard to see which branches were dead. They crumbled in your hand. My mother and I would sometimes tear them out of the tangle to allow more room for growth.
We remain in God by obedience to his word. That is how we remain fruitful and useful for God's purposes. That is how we retain life in ourselves, as the sap of the Holy Spirit flows through our minds and hearts.
When we consider the challenge of obedience, perhaps we focus too much on what is required than on who requires it. When my superior asks me to do something, I probably ask myself, "Do I want to do this?" I let myself and my preferences come between the request and the deed.
It is so much simpler and more satisfying to consider who asks me to do this. I obey in loyalty and love, happy to be chosen by someone worthy of my admiration and respect.
The story of Jesus in Gethsemane describes this crisis. Jesus must surrender to the temple guards who have come to arrest him. He will be roughly treated, then sentenced to death, tortured and crucified. Like that of any human being, his flesh quails at the thought of what must happen. In prayer he pleads, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done."
His prayers are answered as he prays repeatedly, perhaps for hours, until his body, mind and heart have found their rest in the Presence of the Father.
Our fruitfulness as Christians does not spring from our actions, nor from the energy we put into them. It is born of the willingness that takes delight in knowing God and in doing his will.
E 'n la sua volontade รจ nostra pace.
In his will is our peace.
Dante
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.