5th SUNDAYOF EASTER

(Acts 9, 26-31; 1 John 3, 18-24; John 15,1-8)

Spiritual fruitfulness can never be a result of the individual Christian’s human effort alone, no matter how intense it may be.  It is true that sustained human effort is indispensable for the acquisition of moral virtues, fruitfulness in Christian life, however, has a deeper meaning and implication than just moral virtues.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers us a clue here.  It says, “The moral virtues are acquired by human effort.  They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love”.  (CCC 1804). Spiritual fruitfulness has to do with the whole issue of communion with divine love.  

Jesus in today’s gospel makes this fact abundantly clear.  The only condition under which one can bear fruit is to be grafted into Christ who is the vine and whose branches we are.  The allegory of the vine, vinedresser and the branches we see in today’s gospel helps us to understand the dire need we have of sharing in the very life of Christ, the sole precondition for fruitfulness. It is possible that one may observe all the moral virtues and yet not live a life of communion with divine love.  At the level of this communion, one’s life becomes an intimate sharing in Christ’s life.  Such a person lives in God and God lives in him as St. John puts it in Today’s second reading.

Sharing in the divine life has practical implications for us in our day to day lives as Christians.  The picture the Psalmist painted about a tree planted beside the waters in the first psalm captures what happens when one’s life is grafted in Christ the vine.  Such a person, says the Psalmist, is like a tree planted near streams; it bears fruit in season and its leaves never wither.  One who shares the life of Christ and lives in intimate communion with him is ruled by love not by law; he finds deeper meaning in the commandments as rule of life to be joyfully lived and not some tasking statutes to be grudgingly adhered to; he finds enormous joy in serving others and enjoys an inner joy and serenity accessible only to one led by the Spirit.  

Our world needs the fruitfulness that comes from intimate communion with Christ in order to become a better place.  How different indeed the human society will be if half of those who occupy the pews every Sunday have their lives grafted deeply into Christ and strive to live a life of intimate communion with him! May we therefore, during the Eucharistic celebration of this Sunday, ask the Almighty God to make our being grafted into Christ his risen Son at our Baptism active and effective. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

(pictures and graphics added  by blogger )