Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (Cycle B)
Readings:
Acts 9:26-31
Psalm 22:26-28, 30-32
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Our Union with the Lord in the
Community of the Church
God has granted His children the power to bear the abundant
fruit of good deeds through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has grafted us
onto the True Vine (Jesus Christ) so we can bring forth "the fruit of the
Spirit," that is, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal 5:22-23). We live by the
Spirit the more we renounce self-interest and "walk by the Spirit" (Gal 5:25).
In the First Reading, we hear about St. Paul's introduction to the Jerusalem Church. Earlier, on a journey to Damascus, Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus, who transformed his life. He then believed Jesus was the promised Messiah and submitted to Him in the Sacrament of Baptism. However, Paul understood that he needed to become part of the united Church family founded by his Lord and Savior and instructed by the Apostles's authority if he genuinely wanted to serve Jesus Christ in spreading the Gospel of salvation.
The Responsorial Psalm vividly describes the crucifixion of Jesus centuries before the Persians invented crucifixion as a form of capital punishment. Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22 as He hung on the Cross: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). Parts of Psalm 22 are the most frequently quoted of the psalms in the New Testament. Jewish scholars call it one of several toda/todah psalms, a Hebrew word that means "thanksgiving." A toda psalm begins as a heart-wrenching lament but concludes in a song of praise for the mercy of God and the psalmist's confidence in God's deliverance.
In the Second Reading, St. John wrote in his first letter to the Church's different faith communities that true love is more than words. Jesus showed His love when he laid down his life for us; therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for our brother (1 Jn 3:16). The Apostle reassured the readers of his letter in every generation that God knows everything: He knows our sins, our thoughts, the secrets in our hearts, our repentance, and our desire to do good deeds. John's message is that God's love and mercy outweigh our sins. This knowledge should cause us to be overwhelmed with gratitude and love for God, and we should express that gratitude by sharing His love with others.
In the Gospel Reading, during Jesus's Last Supper discourse, He identified Himself to His disciples as the "True Vine," and all who believed in Him as the "branches" united to Him. Jesus used the metaphor of the vine and its branches to emphasize the importance of divine grace in joining the lives of Christians to the glorified life of God the Son, the Redeemer-Messiah, who is the source of divine life and wisdom. For those of us who believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God unites us to Him in the same way the branches of a plant are connected to the main stem or trunk. If we have faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we abide/remain in Him, and He abides/remains in us. We become reborn sons and daughters of God by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Christian Baptism, united to Christ and each other. As branches draw life and grow from the parent stalk, so do our souls receive life from Christ as we grow spiritually nourished by His word and by the Eucharist in the arms of Mother Church. In the assembly of the faithful, we share our love and sing hymns to praise God who abides in us, as in today's Responsorial Psalm, we sing: "I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people."
The First Reading Acts 9:26-31 ~ St. Paul Meets
the Apostles and Disciples in Jerusalem
26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the
disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a
disciple. 27 Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the Apostles,
and he reported to them how he had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to
him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 He
moved about freely with them in Jerusalem and spoke out boldly in the name of
the Lord. 29 He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but they tried to
kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned of this, they took him down to
Caesarea and sent him on his way to Tarsus. 31 The Church throughout all Judea,
Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear
of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers.
St. Paul, also known by his Hebrew name Saul, was a member of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. He was born in the Roman city of Tarsus in Asia Minor and was a Roman citizen. He had served as an officer of the Jewish law court that condemned Jesus to death (the Sanhedrin) and was a former persecutor of Christians (Acts 8:3). Paul was on a mission to arrest Christians who had fled to Damascus, Syria (Acts 9:1-2) when he was suddenly confronted by the resurrected Christ and had a dramatic conversion experience (Acts 9:3-19).
According to Paul's letter to the Christian communities in Galicia, after his conversion and baptism, he stayed in Damascus only briefly, proclaiming the Gospel until Jewish persecution forced him to leave (Acts 9:23-25). Then he went to live in Arabia for three years (Gal 1:17). He may have used his time in Arabia to study, linking the Old Testament prophecies to Jesus and perfecting the arguments he would use to fulfill his mission in professing Jesus's Gospel message as the promised Savior and source of eternal life (Acts 9:15). After returning from Arabia, Saul/Paul went to Jerusalem to meet the Apostles (Acts 9:26-30; Gal 1:15-17).
Most Jews viewed Saul as a traitor and heretic (Acts 9:23-25), while Jewish Christians distrusted him and were skeptical of his conversion story. However, Joseph Barnabas, a man highly regarded in the Jerusalem community (Acts 4:36-37; 11:24), sponsored him and brought him to the Apostles. Saul spent fifteen days conversing with St. Peter (Gal 1:18) and received official permission to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ among the Gentiles (Gal 2:7-9). Later, Saul changed his name to the Greco-Roman Paulos/Paulus to facilitate his mission to the Gentiles.
Saul's preaching in Jerusalem got him into trouble again (verses 28-29), especially with the Hellenistic (Greek culture) Jews. The Hellenistic Jews were the same group that brought false witnesses against St. Stephen at his trial with the Sanhedrin, where they condemned him to death (Acts 6:8-14, 58). The Christian community then smuggled Saul out of Jerusalem, taking him "down" (from the mountain where Jerusalem sat) and north to the port at Caesarea, where they sent him to his home at Tarsus (verse 30). Barnabas later recruited him to help teach the mixed Jewish and Gentile Christian community at Antioch, Syria (Acts 11:20-28).
31 The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria
was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and
with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers.
For a short time, Jewish hostility died down, and there was
no organized, widespread persecution of the New Covenant Church. Roman
persecution would not begin until AD 64. This interim of peace allowed the
Apostles and disciples to begin their mission to carry out Jesus's commission
to spread His Gospel faithfully, an order He gave them at His Ascension. Beginning
in Jerusalem and Judea, they then carried the Gospel north into Samaria and
Galilee before spreading the Gospel of salvation to the "ends of the earth"
(Acts 1:8). Led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus's disciples carefully nurtured their
relationship with the Lord ("walked in the fear of the Lord") and each other
through prayer and living Jesus's Law of love of God and neighbor as the New
Covenant Church continued to grow.
Adhering to God's commitment to the children of Israel as His "firstborn sons" among the world's nations (Ex 4:22), Jesus's Apostles and disciples first carried the Gospel message of salvation to their countrymen and women. These first Jewish Christians became the seeds of the new, spiritually restored Israel of the New and Eternal Covenant God promised through His sixth-century BC prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31; 32:40; 50:5, CCC 877). In Christ, they preached the Gospel of salvation, and their work bore much fruit in converting souls, just as Jesus promised them (Gospel Reading).
Responsorial Psalm 22:26-28, 30-32 ~ Faith in a
Universal call to Salvation and the Resurrection of the Dead
The response is: "I will praise you, Lord, in the
assembly of your people" or "Alleluia."
26 I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
27 The lowly shall eat their fill; they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
"May your hearts live forever!"
Response:
28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
the LORD; all the families of the nations shall bow down before him.
Response:
30 To him alone shall bow down all who sleep in the
earth; before him shall bend all who go down into the dust.
Response:
31 And to him my soul shall live; my descendants shall
serve him. 32 Let the coming generation be told of the LORD that they may
proclaim to a people yet to be born the justice he has shown.
Response:
The response is from verse 23 of the psalm. The superscription attributes Psalm 22 to Jesus's ancestor, King David (Lk 1:32). It vividly describes Jesus's crucifixion centuries before the Persians invented it as a form of capital punishment. Along with Psalm 110, it is one of the most quoted or alluded to psalms in the New Testament. Jesus quoted the first line of the psalm as He hung on the Cross: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). The accounts of Jesus's Passion in the Gospels either quote or allude to several other verses from Psalm 22 (i.e., Mt 27:35, 43, 46; Mk 15:34; Jn 19:24; also see Heb 2:12). It is one of several psalms that Jewish scholars call a toda/todah psalm, a Hebrew word that means "thanksgiving." A toda psalm begins as a heart-wrenching lament but concludes in a song of praise for the mercy of God and the psalmist's confidence in God's deliverance.
26 I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
27 The lowly shall eat their fill; they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
"May your hearts live forever!"
Despite his suffering, the psalmist expresses the determination
to fulfill his covenant obligations in the Liturgy of worship in the presence
of other faithful covenant members. The "lowly," in Hebrew, the 'anawim,
refers in the religious sense to those who are humble, pious, and devout.
28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
the LORD; all the families of the nations shall bow down before him. [...] 30
To him alone shall bow down all who sleep in the earth; before him shall end
all who go down into the dust. 31 And to him my soul shall live; my descendants
shall serve him. 32 Let the coming generation be told of the LORD that they may
proclaim to a people yet to be born the justice he has shown.
The psalmist ends his prayer, looking to the future. In
these verses, he professes a belief in a universal conversion of the nations.
He believes the Gentiles will come to faith in the one true God, and there will
be a universal resurrection of the dead at the end of time. In verse 32, he
also speaks of the obligation of the faithful in every generation to teach their
children about the Lord God. Every new generation must continue to call all the
earth's people to believe in the God of justice and mercy.
Fifty days after Jesus's Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension, on the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Pentecost in Greek), the Holy Spirit came to the Christian community praying with the Virgin Mary in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, baptizing them with holy fire (Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-12). Afterward, empowered by the Holy Spirit, St. Peter told a Jewish crowd that David was not only Israel's greatest king but also a prophet. God's covenant with him foretold the coming of a Redeemer-Messiah, an eternal Davidic King who would defeat death (2 Sam 7:12-13; 23:5; Ps 89:3-4, 26-29; 132:11-12). Standing outside the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Peter testified that David knew God had sworn an oath to him and would set one of his descendants upon his throne. He foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Davidic Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor was his flesh corrupted (Acts 2:29-31).
The Second Reading 1 John 3:18-24 ~ Love in Action
18 Children, let us love not in word or speech but in
deed and truth. 19 Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him 20 in whatever our hearts condemn, for God
is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do
not condemn us, we have confidence in God 22 and receive from him whatever we
ask because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And his
commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us. 24 Those who keep his
commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains
in us is from the Spirit he gave us.
In this letter to the universal Church, St. John wrote in verse 18 that true love comes from action, not just words. Jesus showed His love in action when he laid down his life for us; therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for our brother (1 Jn 3:16). Then, in verses 19-20, the Apostle reassures us that God knows everything. He knows our sins and the secrets in our hearts, and He also knows of our repentance and our desire to do good deeds. It is impossible to hide our true intentions from God, as St. Peter confessed when he met with Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias/Sea of Galilee after the Resurrection and said: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you (Jn 21:17, bold added for emphasis).
John's message is that the love of God is greater than our sins. Pope St. John Paul II wrote: "When we realize that God's love for us does not cease in the face of our sins or recoil before our offenses, but becomes even more attentive and generous; when we realize that this love went so far as to cause the Passion and Death of the Word made flesh...then we exclaim in gratitude: 'Yes, the Lord is rich in mercy,' and even: 'The Lord is mercy'" (Reconciliantio et parenitentia, 22). This knowledge of God's mercy should cause us to be overwhelmed with gratitude and love for God, and we should express that gratitude by sharing our love for Him with others.
21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have
confidence in God 22 and receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his
commandments and do what pleases him.
If we obey God's commandments, we should reflect our
confidence in Him in our prayer life. Jesus promised us, "If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for
you" (Jn 15:7 in the Gospel Reading).
23 And his commandment is this: we should believe in the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. 24
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we
know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.
Jesus summarized God's commandments in the Old Testament regarding
love (Mt 22:37-40 (Mk 12:28-31; Lk 10:25-28). During His discourse at the Last
Supper, Jesus commanded the disciples: "I give you a new commandment: love
one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is
how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another"
(Jn 13:34-35).
In verse 24, St. John used
the verb menei/meno, meaning "to remain, abide or live," the same
Greek verb Jesus used in His Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:56: Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains [menei] in me and I in him. The
word also appears seven times in Jesus's True Vine Discourse in the Gospel
Reading from John 15:4-7, when Jesus said, "Remain in me, as I remain*
in you. 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."
*The second "remain" is not in the Greek text.
In verse 24, St. John summarized the commandments regarding love for Jesus and our brothers and sisters in the human family. He wrote that it is a higher calling than ordinary human love because the Holy Spirit generates it. St. Bede wrote: "We cannot rightly love one another unless we believe in Christ, nor can we truly believe in the name of Jesus Christ without brotherly love" (In 1 Epist. St. Ioannis). As Christians, we cannot separate faith from love (Gal 5:6). Jesus Himself said it would be the disciple's love for one another that would mark them as His, as He abides/remains in them and them in Him (Jn 13:34-35).
The Gospel of John 15:1-8 ~ Jesus's True Vine Discourse
1 Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and
my Father is the vine grower. 2 He takes away every branch in me that does not
bear fruit and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. 3 You
are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. 4 Remain in me, as
I remain in you. 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. 5 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. 6 Anyone who does not remain in
me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and
throw them into a fire, and they will be burned. 7 If you remain in me and my
words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will be done for you. 8 By
this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."
The word "remain" in parentheses is not in the Greek text (IBGE, vol. IV, page 300).
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
Using the vine as a metaphor, Jesus emphasizes the
importance of divine grace in uniting the Christian to Christ. In the Vatican
II document Apostolicam actuositatem, 4, the Church instructs the
faithful: "Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the Church's whole
apostolate. Clearly then, the fruitfulness of the apostolate of lay people
depends on their living union with Christ." Jesus clarifies this truth
in His statement to the Apostles: "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."
John 15:1 is Jesus's seventh use of "I AM" with a predicate nominative statement that connects Jesus to the Divine Name of God (see Jn 6:35; 8:12; 10:7, 11; 11:25; 14:6; and 15:1). In Sacred Scripture, seven is the symbolic number of fullness, perfection, and completion. It is also the number of spiritual perfection and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus's identification of Himself with the "True Vine" is overflowing with symbolic Old Covenant imagery and New Covenant Eucharistic symbolism. The Old Testament prophets used the fruitful vine or vineyard imagery and the fruitful fig tree to symbolize Israel as Yahweh's faithful covenant people. The prophet Isaiah wrote: The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant (Is 5:1-7). However, a barren vine or fig tree symbolizes Israel's rebellion against God and the path to divine judgment. See the section on the Vine and Fig Tree imagery in the chart on the Symbolic Images of the Old Testament Prophets.
During His last week in Jerusalem, Jesus pronounced divine judgment on Judea in a symbolic act when He cursed an unfruitful fig tree, causing it to wither and die (Mt 21:19-22 and Mk 11:13-21). He also told parables about a barren fig tree (Lk 13:6-9) and a vineyard tended by wicked tenants (Mt 21:33-43; Mk 12:1-12; Lk 20:9-19). All the parables were symbols of the Sinai Covenant people's failures in obeying God's commandments and prophesied the coming of divine judgment. Their failures included the rejection of the Messiah.
To grasp Jesus's teaching of the "True Vine" in John chapter 15, it is necessary to understand how the disciples associated the symbolic significance of Israel as "the Vine" in the writings of the prophets. All Jews who were ethnically Israelite or became converts to the Sinai Covenant (like Ruth the Moabitess) were part of Israel, the holy "Vine" of Yahweh. For Old Testament references to Israel as "the Vine," see, for example, Deuteronomy 32:32-33; Sirach 24:17; Is 5:1-7; 27:2-6; Jeremiah 2:21; 5:10; 6:9; 12:10; Ezekiel 15:1-8; 17:3-10; 19:10-14; Hosea 10:1; Joel 1:7; and Psalm 80:8-18. Compare the Old Testament references to Israel as "the Vine" with the New Testament passages of Jesus's parables of the vine/vineyard during His last week teaching in Jerusalem. In each parable, He identified the covenant people with a vineyard that failed to produce good fruit, and in each parable, He prophesied His death. God's prophets depicted Israel in covenant union with Yahweh as a fruitful vineyard/fig tree. However, Israel, in rebellion against Yahweh, was a withered vine or tree, ready to be cut down and doomed to destruction in the fire of divine judgment (Mt 21:19-22, 33-43; Mk 11:13-21; 12:1-12; Lk 13:6-9; 20:9-19).
In John chapter 15, when Jesus began to speak of Himself as the "True Vine," His disciples were sitting with Him at the table after the first meal of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. They knew the Scriptures and would immediately have thought of those significant verses from the prophets and Jesus's teachings about God's judgment before and during His last week in Jerusalem. They would have especially remembered when He cursed the fruitless fig tree on Monday and afterward when they saw it withered to the ground on Tuesday (Mk 11:12-14, 20-25). However, there is a significant difference between Israel's symbolic imagery as "the Vine" of Yahweh in the Old Testament and Jesus's statement to the Apostles in this passage. Jesus identifies Himself, not Israel, as the genuine "True Vine."
The fact that "Vine" describes both Israel and the Messiah reinforces the close identification of Jesus with Yahweh's covenant people. Under the law of the New Covenant, it was not enough to avoid the outward act of sexual immorality in the sin of adultery and other sexual sins. If someone harbored lust in their heart, they had already sinned (Mt 5:27-28). The Old Covenant ritual purity laws were not enough to cleanse the believer in the New Covenant. Nor was the Old Covenant sign of circumcised flesh the covenantal sign God desired. He wanted a pure, circumcised heart committed to living the "Law of Love" of God and our "neighbors," redefined as our brothers and sisters in the human family (Dt 30:6; Mt 22:37-39). In the New Covenant, the people of God are no longer identified only ethnically as "Israel the Church." Now, through the miracle of Baptism and the rebirth by water and the Spirit, we become the New Covenant people in the universal family of God (Jn 3:3-5). Those of Old Covenant Israel who follow Jesus as the Messiah were now a part of Christ the "True Vine" (Jn 15:1). They became members of the New Israel of the New Covenant Church, fulfilling Israel's mission to become a "light to the nations" of the world (Is 49:6b, CCC 877).
The faithful remnant of the old Israel followed Jesus to become the new Israel of a new and everlasting covenant (see Jer 31:31-34; Rom 9:6ff; and 11:1-10). Jesus of Nazareth's true disciples are those:
These men and women formed the nucleus of the New Covenant Israel—the Catholic [universal] Church.
If Jesus is the "True Vine," then the "False Vine" has to be the people of Old Covenant Israel who rejected their Messiah. Clothing Himself in the symbolic imagery of the "True Vine" instead of the "False Vine" of what Old Covenant Israel had become in their rejection of the Messiah, Jesus affirmed that God's covenant people could not find the path to eternal salvation in the old Sinai Covenant. They must come into the New Covenant ratified by Yeshua (Jesus), the Redeemer-Messiah, whose very name means "I SAVE," to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins (venial and mortal), and eternal salvation. The old covenant could only forgive unintentional sin through animal sacrifice, not mortal/intentional sins (Num 15:27-31). It also did not have the power to grant the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that Jesus identified God the Father as "the Vinedresser." This detail is significant in determining what kind of vine God the Son is. He is a vine belonging to the heavenly order: the "True Vine" of divine origin. Jesus is also the "True Vine" symbolic of the Eucharistic Banquet. The fruit of the vine produces grapes that are crushed, trampled, and made into wine. In His Passion, Christ was crushed and trampled for our sins, and in His crucifixion, He yielded the best wine of the Eucharistic banquet as prefigured at the Wedding at Cana. We join in that heavenly banquet on earth in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist when the fruits of our labors, the bread and wine we offer, become, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Body and Blood of Christ as He foretold in John 6:54-56 when He said, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
As in the Creation event, the word God speaks becomes a reality. St. Paul warned those who received Jesus's gift of the Eucharist without discerning His Body and Blood or receiving His gift with an impure soul stained with sin. Paul wrote, "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:27-29).
2 He takes away every branch in me that does not bear
fruit and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. 3 You are
already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
John used wordplay with two similar sounding Greek verbs,
which we translate as "cuts away" = airein and "prunes"([better
translation is trims or cleans) = kathairein. In the next verse, He used
the adjective "clean" = katharos, which corresponds to the second verb
and unites the idea of cutting with cleansing or purifying. God the Son is the
True Vine, and God the Father is the Vinedresser who prunes and maintains the
branches. The branches represent the New Covenant believers, the Church
of the new Israel, and those who are the "clean/purified" people of God,
forgiven their sins and sanctified through the Sacrament of Christian Baptism,
and who remain purified in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (CCC 877).
Notice the relationship between Jesus the Vine and the New Covenant believers as the branches. The branches are physically and spiritually united to the Vine and receive nourishment, life, and fruitfulness from the "True Vine" that is Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the life-giving "sap" of the Father's Vine, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit provides nourishment to the branches, and those branches produce fruit. The fruit they bear is a life of obedience to the commandments, especially the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us (Jn 13:34-35 and 15:12-17). This fruitful love will result in the works of God working through believers who are empowered to reach out to change the world (CCC# 1108).
In verse 2, Jesus warned the "branch" that bears no fruit. The significance of this statement is that obedience to Christ's command to love requires active faith. The failure to produce works of love jeopardizes the branches' spiritual life, which may cause them to become separated from the True Vine. This verse implies that a condition of our salvation is to be part of the True Vine to have life eternally. Believers can lose their salvation if they choose to separate themselves from the Vine, Christ, through unrepented mortal sin. The journey to everlasting salvation is a life-long process, but those who persevere in faith to the end will find salvation (see Jn 15:6; 1 Tim 1:18-19; Rev 3:5; 20:12; CCC 161-62). In His letter to the Christians at Sardis, the glorified Jesus promised: Anyone who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not blot that name out of the book of life, but acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels (Rev 3:5 NJB). To remain united to the True Vine is to have your name inscribed in the Book of Life, and you will secure eternal salvation if you persevere in faith.
and every one that does, he prunes so that it bears more
fruit. 3 You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
God "prunes" the "branch" to make it bear even more "fruit."
If you have ever kept a grape wine, you know that new life springs back to
produce fruit wherever you prune. The pruning sometimes seems severe when removing
healthy growth, so the plant will continue to grow in the desired direction and
create the most fruit. The same is true for our lives when God the Vinedresser "prunes"
us to keep us from growing astray. In His Fatherly discipline, He prunes out
our selfishness and indifference. God does this through the trials we
experience to encourage us to produce, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the
desired "fruit"/works pleasing to Him (Heb 12:5-11; Jam 1:1-4; 1 Pt 1:6-7). The
desired result is a fruitful harvest of souls for Heaven.
3 You are already pruned
because of the word that I spoke to you. 4 Remain in me, as I remain in you.
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.
In verses 4-7, the verb menei/meno, meaning "to
remain, abide or live," appears seven times in the Greek text. It is the same
Greek verb Jesus used in the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:56, Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains [menei] in me and I in him. The
Eucharist unites the family of Jesus Christ, and when one receives Christ in the
Holy Eucharist, He "remains/abides/lives" in that person. The Greek verb "meno"
is one of the most important theological terms in John's Gospel:
Just as Jesus has His life from the Father and the Father is in Him, believers who receive Christ in the Eucharist also have life because Jesus remains/abides/lives in them. He promises to abide/remain/live with us always until the end of time (Mt 27:20).
5 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. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me will be
thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them
into a fire, and they will be burned.
The sign that one remains/abides in Christ and Christ in him
is that the believer will bear much fruit. One who partakes of Christ in the
Eucharistic sacrifice enjoys a mutually abiding relationship with Jesus. This
theme began in the Prologue of John's Gospel in 1:32 with God the Holy Spirit,
who "remains on Jesus" at His baptism. The mutually abiding concept was
developed in the Eucharistic language of the Bread of Life Discourse in John Chapter
6, concerning believers who "remain/abide" in Jesus and He in them (6:56). The
theme expands to the Father who "remains/abides" in the Son in John 14:10. And
now, the same theme comes into focus again in 15:4 for believers who "remain/abide"
in Christ and He in them. There are many implications of this
"remaining/abiding." A believer enjoys intimacy with and security in Jesus the
Savior. Just as Jesus has His life from the Father, believers have life because
of Jesus, who gives them His life in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the
promise of eternal life if we persevere and continue to "remain/abide" in
Him.
What happens to unbelievers and professed believers who do not obey the commandments and are not united to Christ through God's grace? Jesus spoke in detail about such "unfruitful branches" in His Final Judgment Discourse in Matthew 25:31-46. All our works will be purified by fire, both the good deeds that bear fruit and the fruitless, empty works that lack goodness. St. Paul speaks about the purification of the Christian by fire in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15. Paul addressed the destruction of "bad works" and accountability for one destined for Heaven. However, Jesus is speaking not of the destruction of "bad works" or atonement for sins and the preservation of good works by God's fiery love in one who is saved (1 Cor 3:15, CCC 1030-32).
In the Final Judgment Discourse, Jesus spoke of destruction in Divine Judgment and the eternal separation that waits for every "branch" separated from Christ that has become worthless. St. John will write of that final "Day of the Lord" in Revelation 20:11-15. Also, see parallels with other images Jesus used in the parable of the fruit from a sound or a rotten tree in Matthew 7:17-20 and the dragnet in Matthew 13:49-50. And do not miss the warning in the parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:11-14, where the improperly dressed wedding guest, not clothed in the garment of sanctifying grace, was thrown out of the feast. Also, see Matthew 3:10 and Hebrews 6:4-8.
In this part of the discourse, some scholars suggest that Jesus and His disciples departed from the Upper Room of the Last Supper, crossed the Kidron Valley, and went to the Mount of Olives, where there were many vineyards. Vinedressers pruned the grapevines from February through March. The pruned branches were then destroyed in great bonfires. Other scholars suggest that Jesus and His disciples had entered the Temple precincts where they were gazing at the beautiful golden grapevine, the size of a man, which adorned the entrance to the Temple's Holy Place (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 5.5.4). The Jewish priest and historian Flavius Josephus recorded that the Temple gates were locked securely at night, and unauthorized people could not enter the Temple precincts except on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At midnight, when the covenant people had finished their sacrificial meals of the Passover victim, the Temple's gates remained open for those who wished to pray in the courts of God's house.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for
whatever you want, and it will be done for you. 8 By this is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."
In verse 7, Jesus promised to honor whatever request we make
in His name. Most people stop with that statement and then complain that what
they have asked in prayer was not fulfilled. They miss that Jesus placed a
condition on our requests in the next verse that we must remain/abide in Him
and keep the commandments. To "keep His commandments" includes everything He
has taught, including His teaching that we must conform to God the Father's
will in our lives just as Jesus was perfectly in accord with the Father's will.
We see that accord when He prayed to God the Father in the Garden of
Gethsemane, which John does not repeat in his Gospel but appears in the
Synoptic Gospels. In Matthew 26:39, Jesus prayed, "My Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass me; yet, not as I will, but as you will."
Therefore, when we pray, our petitions must not be contrary to the teachings of Christ and His Church, and our petitions must be obedient to the will of God for our lives. Our prayers of faith consist of crying out to the Lord in our distress and submitting our hearts to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls His disciples to bring into their prayer life this concern for cooperating with the divine plan guided by God the Holy Spirit (see CCC 2558-2565). The Catechism teaches: "By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us bear 'the fruit of the Spirit: ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.' 'We live by the Spirit' the more we renounce ourselves, the more we 'walk by the Spirit.'" (CCC 736). When we are faithful and obedient to the will of the Father in our lives, St. Paul promises that "all things work for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose" (Rom 8:28).
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Psalm 22 (CCC 304*);
22:27 (CCC 716*)
1 John 3:19-24 (CCC 2845*); 3:19-20 (CCC 208, 1781); 3:21 (CCC 2778*); 3:22 (CCC 2631)
John 15:1-5 (CCC 755*); 15:1-4 (CCC 1988*); 15:3 (CCC 517*); 15:4-5 (CCC 787); 15:5 (CCC 308*, 737, 859*, 864*, 1694*, 2074, 2732); 15:7 (CCC 2615*); 15:8 (CCC 737)
Christ's prayer at the Last Supper (CCC 2746*, 2747*, 2748*, 2749, 2750*, 2751*)
Christ is the vine, and we are the branches (CCC 736*, 737*, 755*, 787*, 1108*, 1988*, 2074*)
The fruit of charity (CCC 953*; 1822, 1823*, 1824*, 1825*, 1826*, 1827, 1828*, 1829)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.