SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
9 MAY 2021
We
continue to hear from the farewell discourse of Jesus to his disciples at the
Last Supper. To understand what he is
saying in today’s Gospel, we need to recall his image of the vine and the
branches. He has drawn this image of the
Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah spoke of Israel
as God’s vineyard. God transplanted the
vine from Egypt, cultivated and watered the soil, built a fence around it, and provided
nourishment for the vineyard. When God
looked to the vineyard for a fruitful harvest, he found sour grapes. Isaiah argued that these sour grapes were a
result of Israel being unfaithful to their Covenant. As a result of that infidelity, the enemies
of Israel broke down their walls and took them into exile.
Jesus
reveals himself as the true vine. His
disciples are the branches. He will
remain with his disciples if they stay connected to the vine. They will produce much fruit if they love one
another as he has loved them. They are
not slaves, who can make no personal choices.
They are friends, who can choose to accept his invitation or ignore
it. He is not inviting them to have warm
feelings or be nice to other people. He
is inviting them to be attached.
Authentic love involves becoming attached to a group and keeping that
attachment alive. Jesus himself became
attached to us when he emptied himself of the privileges of divinity and took
on our human condition in the Incarnation.
He has already taught his disciples how to love when he became a humble
servant and washed their feet. He will
demonstrate that attachment by willingly giving his entire life for them on the
cross.
We
became his disciples when we were grafted onto the true vine as branches at
Baptism. Now he challenges us to produce
good fruit by loving as he has loved us.
As the first Letter of Saint John reminds us, this self-giving love
comes from God, who is love. We can know
firsthand what God’s love truly means.
That is why we celebrate the Season of Easter for fifty days. We continue to experience the love of God in
his real presence in this Eucharist, which strengthens our bonds of unity to
Christ and to each other as his body. Knowing
that love here, we are sent out to share that love with others, producing much
fruit.
That is
what Saint Peter does in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Inspired by a vision, Peter courageously goes
beyond the restrictions of his Jewish heritage and dares to enter the house of
Cornelius, a pagan. He grafts Cornelius
and his family as branches to the true vine when he baptizes them. By attaching them to Christ, he opens the way
for all Gentiles to be grafted onto the true vine. His act of love allows the Gospel to go well
beyond its Jewish roots to produce much needed fruit throughout the Roman Empire.
On this
Mother’s Day, we recognize those women in our lives that have shown us in so
many ways what the love of God looks like.
We need a special day to recognize those women who have attached
themselves to us and born much fruit in living their vocation. We also pray for those women who find a day
like this very difficult – women who have lost children, or are unable to
conceive, or who are alone for any reason.
On this first weekend of May, we
also honor Mary, the mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Church. She gives an example of total attachment and
helps us to understand that imitating the love of God goes well beyond warm
feelings and best wishes. We ask for her
intercession, so that we can produce much fruit by loving others as God has
loved us. The world desperately needs
the fruits of being attached to God’s love:
love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.
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