April 2018

The traditional grapevine is one of the world’s most important agricultural crops. At the time of Jesus vineyards were everywhere, and practices relating to their cultivation would be familiar. In today’s Gospel Jesus emphasizes that a vine needs to be carefully tended, and that is has a living and connected structure. The vine produces fruit through the branches and the branches are dependent on the central vine. Jesus describes himself as the “true vine”. The motif of the grapevine is present in a great deal of Christian art as a metaphor of the ongoing presence of Jesus. On the mosaic floors of churches of the Byzantine period in the Holy Land and its vicinity, the grape is often seen and it is a symbol of Jesus. The love and connection between God, Jesus and our community is described in John’s Gospel using the image of the vine and the branches. The organic unity suggests a community of many people who are sharers in a single life. Union with Christ is the condition of fruitfulness. Being followers of Jesus gives our lives meaning and direction. Fruit is possible only if we are in union with Him, for He is the productive source of it all.

Our opportunity of bearing any fruit worthy of our natures and of God’s purpose concerning us is by vital union with Jesus Christ. If we don’t have that, there may be plenty of activity and mountains of work in our lives, but there will be no lasting fruit. The next time you eat a grape, reflect upon the fruits that we share in our lives because of our relationship with God. The Christian faith is an experience of being in relationship to God, to each other, and to all our family and friends. Caring and love bind us all together. And remember in this Easter season that resurrection fuels and nurtures growth, hope and love.

During this Easter season we are reading the Acts of the Apostles, which describes what happened at the beginning of the Church. First came Pentecost. You could not have a more spiritual occasion. The Spirit comes with power in wind and fire to each of the apostles. In today’s reading from Acts, Peter speaks filled with the Holy Spirit. The healing he has performed was only possible in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified and whom God raised from the dead. But how do we share in the power of the risen Christ? Peter did not tell crowds at Pentecost just to enjoy themselves and let the Spirit take them over. No, he told them that they must be baptized. They must become a member of the body of Christ, join a community, a church. After baptism the early Christians shared their possessions with each other and broke bread together. It was a religious group. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that we are called to be part of His flock. At the heart of this flock, this community, is a God who shows His face in Jesus the Good Shepherd. He respects our freedom and nourishes and cares for us. He is willing to lay down His life for us when the wolf comes to attack. Jesus will sacrifice His own life in order to bring His sheep together, united in the one faith.

Together we are part of the body of Christ. And in turn we are called to bear witness to that divine love of Christ in the way we care for each other, especially when it challenges our individual selfishness. We could ask ourselves whether we imitate Christ in our pastoral care for our neighbors. Are we good shepherds to our family and friends? We have many weaknesses and are in constant need of reform. We need it to give our spirituality a constant push in the right direction towards justice, charity, and strong witness.

The Gospel reading about the appearance of our Lord to St. Thomas can lead us to focus more on the apostle’s doubt. “Doubting Thomas”, we often call him. We tend to think of Thomas as a rationalist, who carefully weighs evidence. But is this a real basis of his doubt? Perhaps Thomas doesn’t in fact doubt that Christ could rise from the dead; but he can’t believe that he would. He had seen Jesus’ miracles. He had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, as we are told in this same Gospel. Thomas also seems to be the one who recognizes that Jesus is truly God. Why would Jesus return to them? Why would He return to a world that not only rejected Him but put Him to death? To believe that Jesus is risen is to believe that He has forgiven us. Thomas doubts the resurrection because he doubts God’s mercy. To accept mercy requires faith, which is why it is so hard to forgive by human powers. Thomas finally understands that God is too great to be merciless. How do you convince someone that they are forgiven, when you and they are not really sure? To truly forgive and to truly accept forgiveness requires faith, as Jesus points out.

Today is the great Christian feast. We may be tempted to think that Christmas is the feast of feasts because it captures our imagination, and it is so much easier to relate to a vulnerable little child than to enter into, let alone understand, the mystery of a God who, having died a horrendous death as a public criminal, should be raised again to life. The apostles were struggling to understand what was happening. St. John describes the drama in the early morning of Easter Sunday when Mary of Magdala reports that the tomb is empty. He let us know that he was in on the act and ran with Peter to check for himself. It is worth remembering that John was writing his Gospel with the benefit of having been able to piece the story together after a lifetime of meditating on it. He notes that this was the moment that he began to see the connections and the fulfillment of what had been prophesied in the scriptures. He is not afraid to go on and tell us what happened in the evening of Easter Sunday when Jesus came to the apostles who were hiding behind locked doors. It is not insignificant that Thomas, who was absent, refused to accept the evidence of the others. We will hear more about this next Sunday. In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples return to the key elements of the faith. We see them in Peter’s address to Cornelius and his household: Jesus is the awaited Messiah; He was crucified for us, He was raised from the dead; He is now appointed to judge everyone.

Today is enough for you and me to realize that we are being asked to accept our call to be faithful witnesses of the resurrection. Now, as heralds of this good news – we are proclaiming not only that Christ was brought back to life, but that we too have been brought back to life with Him. There is a temptation to think that we must wait until our earthly life comes to an end before we will experience this new life, if we deserve it. But it is clear from the writings of St. Paul that this is not so. We have already been brought back to life and freed from the sin that held us bound.