Vine & Branches. What You Need to Know (2024-04-28, 5th Sun Easter)

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●● Homily,5^th Sunday Easter, 2024-04-28 (year B)  ●●Acts 9:26-31 ● ●Psalm 22 ● ●1 John 3:18-24 ● ●+John 15:1-8 ● ●

Title: Vine and Branches. What You Need to Know.

[__01__]  Do you like text messages?  I like text messages because I can usually learn quickly “what I need to know”.

          This is an ancient example of a text message. It is from the mid 1990s. In the mid 1990s, my parents agreed to accept an exchange student – from Japan - for 2 weeks at our home in New Jersey.

          Immediately, there was a language barrier as my parents spoke no Japanese and this 14-year old girl was quite shy and reticent in the beginning. She also must have been tired and jet-lagged after 14+ hours in an airplane plus time at the airport.

          So it is understandable that she did not immediately communicate eagerly with my parents as fast-talking New Jersey residents.

          On the day that the student arrived, I went over to my parents’ house, but I was not present for the initial introduction and greeting. However, there was in the living room some evidence that they were trying to communicate with each other.

This was the text message. But nobody had phones in the mid 1990s. There was a note written on a slip of paper sliding on the living room floor, left behind on the floor and it read,  “Can I go and unpack my suitcase now?”

          So, this young person passed this note to my mother and father rather than actually speak – out loud – the words.

          Evidently, this was one of several notes passed by this young person who was sometimes more comfortable “writing” than “speaking”

  [__02__]  There's an expression that we sometimes use with each other, or we sometimes use to somebody who's talking for too long, or talking too much. It is this: “just tell me what I need to know”.

This demand to know and to understand, is particularly sharp when we are in an unfamiliar situation. In the previous chapter of this Gospel, the apostles were asking Jesus to them what they need to know. Jesus said to them, he's going to go away, he's leaving them. But then he says “I am the Way the Truth and the Life”. And, they ask him, but where are you going? What's the deal? Just tell us what we need to know. And Jesus says, Follow me and you will get there. That's what you need to know. They wanted something more specific.

 [__03__]  In the Gospel, Jesus is actually trying to be specific by translating the commandments to his disciples and to you and me using certain CONCEPTS.

          There is both a concept and commandment central to the Gospel today – it comes right in the middle – at the midpoint of the reading.

          Do you ever overlook what is said right in the middle of as conversation, perhaps only focusing on what comes at the beginning or end?

          It is typical in many of our reading that the central idea comes also in the “center” or middle of the reading.

          The commandment Jesus gives is: “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.” (John 15:4)

          Did you miss that part? I almost missed that part, losing it in translation.

 [__04__]  After our young homestay friend from Japan landed at JFK airport and traveled to NJ that Saturday, I was not at home.

          But, I can picture my mother and father greeting her warmly and then trying to get to know her with questions:

          “Hi, how are you … how was your trip? Was the plane on time? Would you like something to eat? Would you like something to drink?

Where do you live in Japan? How far are you from Tokyo, et cetera, et cetera?” Pleasantries.

          It probably drove the girl crazy.

          All she wanted to do was take a nap and unpack her suitcase.

[__05__]  But, my parents were trying to help her feel at home and “remain the there” and be “sustained there” and be connected, to tell her what she needed to know.

          At that moment, that young person was not ready for the translation.

[__06__]  Are you and I ready for the translated message of Jesus in the Gospel today, a message that reminds us that to remain in Jesus Christ and to be his disciple means that we are the branches on an extended vine that connects all of us.

          The vine and vineyard is the Body of Christ and the Church. We are the branches on the vine.    

To use another “translation” example, we could say the “branches” are the lamps and light bulbs throughout our church or in your house. There are “branches” of wiring that connect these sources of light.

But, no matter how good the bulbs are or the wiring is, you still need an energy source. You need power. The light bulbs are you and I. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the power source. God is what we need to know.

[__07__]  A key message of the Gospel is that the branches require cutting back in order to produce more fruit.

          This is also what we need to know, that we can gain true strength by recognizing not our own power but God’s power.

          An analogy: have you ever noticed that you need to be loved in order to love, that you need someone to be honest with you, for you to be honest, that you need to be nourished in order to nourish someone else.

          God is all of this – He is love, he is honesty and his every word is our food.

          The parable is also about transformation. This process of pruning and cutting back the vine is also translation, a symbol, of you and me repenting of our sins, turning back to God, to pray, to fast, give charitably of ourselves.

Also, what is motivation in life – do I get my electricity from my own power, popularity, pleasure, profitability?

And also in my relationships with others: Do I allow others to know me as I truly am? Or do I try to simply to look good, rather than to be good or worry complete how I look.

          When we repent of our sins and sinfulness, it can be a painful process to recognize what we have done wrong and to recognize what we can do without, what we can really unpack and leave behind.

          Going to confession, your sins die in the confessional. What happens in the confessional stay in the confessional. That’s what we need to know.

          We unpack and leave these things behind not just for an occasional visit in an unfamiliar place with God but so that we can really move in and remain with Jesus as our Savior and brother, and remain at home with him, to talk in His language of love, to receive the life that flows through the vine of the Church to you and to me. [__end__]