Fifth Sunday of Easter
«By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit»
+ Fr. Joan MARQUÉS i Suriñach (Vilamarí, Girona, Spain)
Today, the Gospel offers us the allegory of the vine and the branches. Christ is the true vine, we are the branches and the Father is the vine grower.
The Father wants us all to bear abundant fruit. It is quite logical. The vine grower plants his vine so that it bears much fruit. If we set up a company, we want it to be profitable. Jesus insists: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (Jn 15:16).
You have been chosen. God has taken notice of you. Through the Baptism He has grafted you onto the true vine that is Christ. You have Christ's life, our Christian life. You own the main element to bear fruit: your union with Christ, for Jesus says it quite clearly: “without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). “His strength is nothing but mildness; nothing is so strong as gentleness, but nothing is so gentle as real strength” (St. Francis of Sales). How many things have you been trying to do without Christ? The fruit the Father is expecting from us is that of the good deeds and the practice of the virtues. Which is the union with Christ that allows us to bear this fruits? Faith and charity, that is, to remain in God's grace.
When you live in God's grace, all your virtuous acts are especially pleasant fruits for the Father. They are deeds Jesus Christ does through you. They are Christ's deeds that glorify the Father and become a heaven for you. It is worth living always in God's grace! “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; (…) throw them into a fire and they will be burned.” (Jn 15:6). This is a clear allusion to hell. Are you like a branch full of life?
Let the Virgin Mary help us to increase the grace so that we can bear much fruit to glorify the Father.