John 15, 1-8:
Sunday, May 2, 2021 (5th E.T. B)
This Sunday we hear from Jesus the parable of the vine and the branches. In the Old Testament, the image of the vine was often used (the people as farmers and herdsmen could understand it very well) and thus symbolically express God’s relationship with the chosen people. A vineyard that God planted, tended, pruned, like a good cultivator. But the response of the people was not as expected, it did not bear the fruit that God wanted, fundamentally because the sap from which it was being nourished was not God himself, but the norms and precepts elaborated by men.
When Jesus presents himself as the one sent by the Father, he says: “I am the true vine” (and the way, the truth, the life…). We could translate it as: I am the one who transmits to you the life that the Father gives. It is through him that God’s desires come to us.
And, like the vine and the branches, they must be cared for, pruned so that they bear fruit. Pruning the vine means cleaning it, purifying it, removing what is unproductive and strengthening what is healthy so that it bears more and better fruit. The vine shoot needs the sap of the vine. On its own, separated from the vine, it dries up and dies. Thus, the one who is not united to Jesus to receive his life and his word, with time, dries up. It is necessary to feed on him in order to be able to bear the fruits of love for God and for others.
During this Easter season, may the Lord grant us to be well united to him and to receive the sap of the Risen Lord.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
