“Bear much fruit and become my disciples” May 9

By Melanie Rigney

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

“I rejoiced because they said to me, ‘We will go up to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1)

Jesus said to his disciples: “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. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15: 4-5, 7-8).

Piety

Jesus, I am continually amazed at your generosity and goodness, of your presence as the vine in my life, providing all to me. Help me, your branch, to conduct myself in a way that is pleasing to you and the Father.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/050907.shtml

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iii.lxxxii.html

How could we pass up a deal like that: If we remain in Christ, and keep his words in us, we get it all.

So easy, and yet so hard. As we succeed, as we triumph over challenges large and small, it’s understandable that at times we come to feel we can do this on our own. That we can cut some corners. Maybe we cut back on our prayer life or on our financial, emotional, or mental commitment to our parish or our ministry. After all, we know how to live right; we’ve been baptized and confirmed. Cutting a few corners here and there isn’t a big deal, right?

In his Homilies on the Gospel of John; Homilies on the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies, St. Augustine of Hippo speaks bluntly to those who assert “that man of himself worketh righteousness”: Look well at what is tracking your steps, and, if you have any sense remaining, let your hair stand on end. … The branch is suitable only for one of two things, either the vine or the fire: if it is not in the vine, its place will be in the fire.

As for those who abide in Christ, Augustine says:

…is there aught they can wish but what will be agreeable to Christ? So abiding in the Saviour, can they wish anything that is inconsistent with salvation? …When His words abide only in the memory, and have no place in life, the branch is not to be accounted as in the vine, because it draws not its life from the root.

As followers of Christ, we are called to never mail it in. We, the branches, have the privilege of being fed by the greatest vine of all and of being tended by the greatest husbandman of all.

Action

Be a branch today. Rededicate your every action—from your morning prayers to your conduct with coworkers and your family to your choice of reading or viewing material to your evening prayers—to abiding in Christ. Keep a notebook with you for the day and jot down the times that you drew nourishment from the vine to conduct yourself in a Christlike manner.