The True Vine and the Vine Grower

In today's Gospel, John 15: 1-8, Jesus says to us: I am the true vine, and my Father the vine grower.  He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit....Remain in me, as I remain in you.  Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me....[W]ithout me you can do nothing," just as a branch separated from a fruit tree bears nothing!

You and I are attached to the Vine through baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation and other sacraments and thus bear the of fruit of love, which lasts into eternity.  We strengthen our attachment to the Vine through prayer and self-sacrificing acts of love: love of our family members--our spouses, our children, our grandchildren--other relatives, members of our religious community (if religious men/women), and persons we touch through various encounters in person or through others ways of encounter.  We grow in love, Jesus tells us, by the action of His "Father, the vine grower."  However, if we, the "branches",  fail to bear the fruit of love, the Father, Jesus tells us, "will take us away"--we "will be thrown out like a branch and wither." 

What am I, what are you, doing to remain attached, and strengthen our attachment, to the true Vine? What am I, what are you doing to co-operate with the Father, "the vine grower"?

Remaining in Jesus and bearing much fruit

In today’s Gospel, John 15: 1-8, Jesus reminds us that He is the true vine and that His Father (and ours) is the vine grower.  The Father “takes away every branch in [Jesus] that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does …[the Father] prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  Jesus also reminds us that we are “already pruned because of the word that…[Jesus speaks to us].”  Furthermore, Jesus tells us clearly that “without [Him] we can do nothing” anymore than a branch can bear fruit apart from the tree.  If you and I do not remain in Jesus, we “will be thrown out like a branch and wither.”  Finally, Jesus tells us that if “we remain in Him and [His words] remain” in us, we “can ask for whatever we want and it will be done” for us. By bearing a lot of fruit and becoming Jesus’ disciples, the ”Father is glorified.”

In reflecting upon this passage, we might internalize it as follows:

The Father is my grower. He “grows” me, nurtures my growth, cultivates me, removes the weeds that impede my growth or cause my decay via selfishness, deceitfulness, fear, hatred, jealousy, envy, aggressive  behaviors, stinginess, and whatever blocks my will from being one with the will of the Father.   As I think of an infant growing into adulthood, everything is within its physical body for it to become an adult man or woman and function well as such. In terms of the spiritual being that I am as coming from the Father, I also have everything within me—attached, of course, to the vine (to Jesus) and pruned by the Father—to become the person God designed me to become spiritually. When I am off track, so to speak, the Father prunes me and, when necessary, like the potter on the potter’s wheel, begins the process all over again so that I turn out as He desires.

Jesus pleads with us:  “Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord; whoever remains in me will bear much fruit” (Jn 15: 4a, 5b).

In what ways are you remaining in Jesus? Does the "fruit" you bear each day give testimony that you are attached to the vine, attached to Jesus, your Savior, relying upon Him and the Spirit for the courage, the strength, the enlightenment you need to do what is right and just?