- "A missionary in Africa lived in his central mission which had a small
electric plant to supply current for his church and small rectory. Some
natives from an outlying mission came to visit the padre. They noticed the
electric light hanging from the ceiling of his living room. They watched
wide-eyed as he turned the little switch and the light went on.
One of the visitors asked if he could have one of those bulbs. The priest, thinking he wanted it for a sort of trinket or bauble, gave him a burned out bulb. On his next visit to the outlying mission, the priest stopped at the hut of the man who had asked for the bulb. Imagine father's surprise when he saw the bulb hanging from an ordinary string. He had to explain that one had to have electricity and a wire to bring the current to the bulb." (1)
Jesus wanted us to know that as branches we are alive; and that we can grow only if we are connected to him, the main vine. We might carry his image a little further and say that the sap running through the vine is the grace, the power, of the Holy Spirit. As long as we are connected to Jesus, our main vine, the power of the Holy Spirit can run into us and keep us alive and thriving. If we are cut off from the main powerplant, Jesus, we wither and die. Then we're no good for anything but to be cut off.
When I was in novitiate with my class in 1950 on a small farm in Godfrey, Illinois, we were kept busy picking apples in the fall; in the winter we pruned the apple trees. Several greenhouses gave warmth to rows of carnations, and we also pruned them. The pruning was necessary to keep both the apple trees and the carnations plants free to deliver sap only to the most healthy buds, those who gave promise of a bountiful harvest.
In our life we have to be pruned also. We sometimes wonder why "bad things happen to good people," the title of Rabbi Kushner's books some years ago. I think it's because God is helping us grow by pruning us, cutting off certain tendencies we have to self-indulgence or downright evil. Such experiences can be growing experiences, we have to admit in our more honest moments. Or, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Hebrews: "For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6)
Today the Lord might have used an image from ecology. We are finding that the chain of life must not be broken: life-forms from the amoeba to the elephant to human beings is unbroken. When species disappear, as they are doing because of modern pollution of the atmosphere, the whole chain of life suffers. That's why whole tracts of land or water must be protected: in the woods it may be the threat of the extinction of a tiny owl, or the majestic bald eagle; in the water it may be the tiniest snail darter. These species are so important to the chain of life, of which we are a part, that laws have been passed forbidding any further timber-felling, or in the case of waters, any further fishing. Such laws have caused consternation and even fights between conservationists and environmentalists.
The chain of life between us and God through Jesus Christ is just as important, and we should take constant guard that it not be broken. In today's gospel Jesus says: "Without me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15: 8). These are very powerful words. We cannot take our next breath without Jesus. That's heavy, as the kids would say. And yet how often do we recall Jesus' words; how often do we ask his help in our smallest undertakings by a short prayer before what we are going to do? "Without me you can do nothing" Jesus says. You can't eat, you can't cut the grass, you can't shop, you can't watch TV. It boggles the mind to think how important our lifeline with Jesus is...just like, as He says, the lifeline between the grapevine branch and the grapevine root.
So how concerned should we be about our lifeline with Jesus? How often do we, for instance, go to confession, as we used to say; how often do we, as we would say today, avail ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation? How often do we tune up our car? We are very careful to see to it that the tires are in good shape, the oil is fresh, the electronics systems are A-OK. Just recently I took my car in for the yearly check for my tags and the mechanic checked my front end. It seems the tie-rod on my right wheel was so dangerously damaged that it could have come off at any time. I also knew my tires were getting pretty old. It seems they were so old, in fact, that I needed four new ones....and a front-end alignment. No, I'm sure these mechanics weren't pulling a fast one on me. I know and trust them. But I wouldn't have wanted to go out on the road again without those changes.
Do I look that closely to my spiritual life? How do I live Jesus' words about loving, about forgiving, about serving? Was I concerned enough during Holy Week this year to come to the services before Easter? Or was I one of the Easter bunnies who show up on Easter Sunday and figure that's good enough for the year?
Am I more attuned to the world's way of living than to my faith-life in Jesus? Does abortion shock me? Does so-called "mercy-killing" seem okay to me? How about casual sex, cheating in the marketplace, overlooking our country's selling of arms to poor third world countries, our culture's emphasis on materialism, advertising and an easy life, our county's consumption of one-third of the world's resources even though we comprise only one-sixth of the world' population? Our restaurants throw away almost half of their food while on TV we see the bones of children sticking out of their flesh in the Sudan as these kids die of starvation?
Christians, not just Catholics, must be branches connected to the vine, Jesus. On Easter Sunday a group of us were eating at Papa Bob's when a good lady from the Senior Center dropped by. She said she was going to spend the afternoon visiting people in the Gainesville nursing home. I was so impressed with her goodness. Surely she is connected to her vine, Jesus.
Other people I know visit their sick friends in their homes or in the hospital. Or they support their kids, financially, sometimes even raising their grandchildren if their own children have to work. I admire some who give of almost all their time to care for a sick relative, even though this means they enjoy little or no social life themselves.
There are people who are living this life connected to Jesus; people who experience the power of the Holy Spirit running through them. Are we one of them? We hope so. We try. We shouldn't get discouraged, but let us thank God, even when some of the pruning makes us wince. God is preparing us for receiving more of that sap, that power, that life from the Holy Spirit running through the vine which is Jesus.
This Easter season is such an easy time to realize what Jesus has done for us and how we would be nothing without our connection with him. He, God, has become man, he took on our flesh, he worked, sweated, left his family to preach for three years, performed miracles of healing, went forward to his passion and death to redeem us (for we could never have redeemed ourselves even with the best of intentions, even with our own death); and Jesus rose again to make us children of the Father. All things for which we can and should give continual thanks for to the Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that all who believe in Jesus might not die but might have eternal life (Jn. 3: 16).
Perseverance must be our ace-in-the-hole. That may seem a hard thing, as witness the story of a pastor who, on his last Sunday at one of his churches, encountered the little old lady crying after the service was over. "I wish you weren't going," she sobbed. Her tears touched him. She'd been a member of that church for 55 years and had seen no less than 17 different pastors come and go. He sought to comfort her by assuring her that the new pastor would do a fine job. 'Oh,' she said dabbing at her eyes, 'That's what they all say, but they just keep getting worse and worse and worse!' Disciples must keep their eyes on Christ, not on popularity polls.
- "At the time of Charles Schulz's death, his biographer said, "He spent a
lifetime perfecting failure." In fact, Schultz himself once wrote, "All the
loves in the strip are unrequited; all the baseball games are lost; all the
test scores are D-minuses; the Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football
is always pulled away.
"'But "'"Peanuts"' wasn't really about failure,'" writes Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman. "'It was about perseverance. It was about a hopeful moon-faced boy holding a kite string, day after day, until the rain forced him indoors. It was about his character's perseverance, and his own. It was about life and work; life as work.'" (2)
- "Thomas Merton, in one of his taped lectures to the novices at Gethsemane monastery in Kentucky talked about abiding in Christ this way. 'It's like you're trying to catch a plan. You're late. You hop in your car and speed to the airport. Every delay gives you ulcers. You reach the parking lot, grab your stuff and race down the corridor to get to the right gate. You rush onto the plane, flop down in your seat, and heave a sigh of relief. You made it. In one sense you've reached your destination. Then the plane takes off, and you're on your way to other places, going higher, faster than ever before, but now you are not frantic or worried. That's what it means to be in Christ." (3)
1) Msgr. Arthur Tonne, Five-Minute Homilies on the Gospels of Cycles A,B,C (Hillsboro KS: Multi-Business Press 1977) pg. 86.
2) "Serving the Word," Homily Service 33 (02): 41 (The Liturgical Conference, Inc., 8750 Georgia Avenue, Suite 123, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3621) May 2000.
3) "Illustrating text and theme." Lectionaid 8 (02): 72 (LectionAid, Inc., P.O. Box 19229 Boulder 80308 - 2229) May 2000.
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)