The Gospel this Sunday (5th Sunday of Easter) uses an image that we are very familiar with in the Niagara Region. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” speaks of vineyards and vine growers and has helped to inspire the title of our diocesan newspaper.
This well-known image helps us to understand our relationship with God. Nature teaches us that a branch can only live and bear fruit when it is connected to the vine which is its source of life. It is the same in the spiritual life. We will not grow or bear fruit unless we are connected to the source of life, Jesus Christ. He states, “whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers”. We all need to be reminded that what applies to the natural order also applies to the supernatural. If we allow ourselves to be cut off from Christ through benign neglect of our relationship with Him, we will not be spiritually fruitful and will begin to wither.
The challenge for us all is to abide in Christ. There are some today who believe that they can be ‘spiritual but not religious.’ They think that they can be connected to Christ without being part of His Body, the Church. To abide in Christ is also to abide in His church.
It is through personal prayer and our participation in the sacramental life of the Church that we become spiritually fruitful. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”