Reflection/Homily:
Fifth (5th) Sunday of Easter Year B (May 3 2015)
Theme: Cut off from me,
you can do nothing
There is this popular story in the internet about
an encounter a Christian had with an atheist. The Christian visited the
atheist’s shop to have a haircut and in the course of having the haircut, they
argued on the existence of God. The atheist used the existence and abundance of
evil in the world to argue against the existence of God. The Christian left the
shop and returned later arguing with the barber that barbers do not exist. The
atheist was surprised and asked if he had no just encountered him as a barber
and the Christian quickly showed him a man whose hair was very bushy and unkempt. The
atheist replied, “that is the lot of those who do not come to me and
immediately the Christian retorted, God exists but evil is the lot of those who
do not go to Him.
This story does not imply that those who go to God
often cannot experience one form of evil or the other, but it expresses in
concrete terms, the point Jesus is making in today’s gospel reading (Jn.
15:1-8),”cut off from me you can do nothing”. This is because in him we live,
move and have our being. The parable of the Vine Jesus presents to us today
portrays our utter dependence on God. As branches, we can only bear fruit when
we remain firmly attached to the vine. That is to say that when we separate ourselves
from the vine, we lose our foundation like a fish out of water, then trials and
tribulations will overcome us.
Beloved brethren, today, Jesus is telling us how
important it is to remain in union with him. Are there things breaking your
union with God? Is your current relationship or work making you break your
union with God? One of those things that will make us cut off from God is sin.
In our sinfulness, we abandon God’s love for us and stay on our own. Being
prone to danger, we are also incapable of sustaining ourselves thereby giving
way to our spiritual death. Such sins may include hatred, immorality, anger,
revenge, etc. We can also cut off from God by paying little or no attention to
the Word of God which is made incarnate in Christ. The Word of God is the food
of the spirit, it gives life to our souls and it is the water that purifies our
whole being. Through it God speaks to our hearts, directs our spirits, and
illumines our vision such that we lack these when we cut off from it. Can you
decide today to read a verse in the bible every day to remain one with Christ?
To remain with the vine, we should also learn to
live in love because God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God. This
is the message of the second reading (1 John 3:18-24). Living in God’s love
implies keeping His commandments which are summarized into love of God and
one’s neighbour. As branches of the vine, we cannot also bear fruit unless the
vine dresser prunes us. Most often, the difficulties we encounter in life are
the ways through which God prunes us to bear much fruits, fruits that will
last. Sometimes, it may be to purge us of our sins and at other times, to make
us stronger for the journey ahead. In the first reading (Acts 9:26-31), Paul
encountered several difficulties and threats of death at the beginning of his
Christian life because of the new faith he embraced. God was using those
difficulties to prune him and make him stronger for the journey ahead so that
he will bear much fruits. Today we enjoy the fruits of Paul’s labour. That is
why we should learn to accept most of the difficulties we encounter in life as
God’s way of pruning us and we can be certain that God cannot prune us beyond
our limits.
Therefore beloved brethren, let us pray today for
the grace to remain one with Christ and never cut off from him despite the
difficult situations we face in life but rather accept them as the means
through which God prunes us. Let us also pray for the grace to love God more
and more and manifest this love in all that we do. God loves you.
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