FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
2 MAY 2021
At
two Masses this weekend, our second graders will receive their First
Communion. The first communicants are
dressed in white garments, because they had been clothed with white garments
when they were baptized. They had put on
Christ, when they were first grafted as branches on the true vine that is
Christ. Their white garments are
reminders of their status.
I have
become convinced that the Lord uses our children as living instruments to bring
us to a deeper faith. As our children
show their uncomplicated faith in that real presence, the Lord invites us to
deepen our own faith in this Sacrament.
The Lord promises that he will remain in us through frequent reception
of this Sacrament. To use other terms,
he will abide with us, stay with us, giving us a share in his divine presence
in our lives, allowing us to bear much fruit.
Before they receive the Lord’s real
presence in the Eucharist for the first time, they will renew the Baptismal
promises, along with their parents and the rest of us. This renewal reminds their parents of the
promise they made seven years ago to form their children in the ways of
faith. Like their children, they too had
been grafted as branches on the vine that is Christ at Baptism. In today’s Gospel, the Lord insists that we
can bear fruit only if we ourselves stay connected as branches to the true vine
that he is.
The Lord also warns that we will be
pruned as branches attached to the living vine.
Pruning is necessary in taking care of a vineyard. Once pruned, the grapevines produce better
and bigger fruit. The earliest disciples
experienced this reality. They had
accepted the Lord’s total gift of himself when they were grafted as branches on
the true vine. They abandoned all prior
faith commitments to enjoy that share in his divine presence. But, they were pruned by brutal
persecutions. Jesus argues that pruning
will enable the branches of his disciples to bear more fruit. The parents of the First Communicants know
how often they have been pruned in the last seven years. They have been pruned of prior freedoms,
allowing them to focus more intently on the needs of their children. They have been pruned of their perceived need
for more things, allowing them to sacrifice for the good of their children.
As painful
as pruning may be, the Lord continues to prune his disciples. This pandemic has pruned all of us. In the beginning, we were cut back from
participating in Mass in person and receiving the Eucharist. In the last year, we have been pruned of many
of the situations of “normal life.” As individuals, we have been pruned. I have been pruned of my desire to decide for
myself what the best response to the pandemic should be. That pruning has opened my eyes to trust the
direction of Bishop Rhoades, the successor of the Apostles. In implementing his instructions, I have been
pruned of my conviction that I could control the responses of people. That pruning has forced me to recognize my
limited ability to fashion responses, allowing me to trust in the Lord’s
promise that we will remain in the branches attached to the true vine.
Throughout
the pruning of this pandemic, Satan has had a field day! Satan loves to take advantage of division and
fear. Satan tried his best in the
conversion of Saul the Pharisee. But
Christ, working through Saint Paul the Apostle, triumphs. Saint Paul resisted the wrath of the
Hellenists, who wanted to kill him. He
endured the initial reluctance of the Christian community who were afraid of
him. He trusted the guidance of Barnabas
and opened himself to the power of the Holy Spirit. We too can resist Satan’s temptations to
further alienation and division. We can
trust in the Lord working through the Sacramental life of the Church to make
sure that we are fully connected as branches to the true vine, and allow him to
remain in us. Then we will bear much
fruit. We will emerge from this pandemic
pruned and stronger than ever.
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