May 2, 2021

5th Sunday of Easter [B]

Pruning Branches for Spiritual Advances

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

While grapes grew in the small garden of my childhood home, I don’t know much about vineyards or what produces a crop of grapes. My father was the expert in that field. But it is an image Our Lord used in his preaching, well understood by his listeners. In the Old Testament the vineyard was the image of Israel. It appeared on Jewish coinage and a golden vine hung above the main door of the Temple. God was seen as the vinedresser, the cultivator of the vineyard of Israel.

In today’s Gospel, it is Jesus who is the vine. We are but the branches. Commenting on his image, Pope Benedict explains that this is an image of “belonging,” of being united to Christ and thus it is an image of the Church. This belonging is of course rooted in our baptism and is nourished by the Eucharist.

Our Lord tells us that his Father is the vinedresser, who cultivates the vine by pruning the branches. From time to time, a vinedresser would have to reach for his knife and cut off the withered branches. He would also prune even the fruit bearing branches so that the vine brings forth more fruit. Most of the time it was a drastic cutting back to the very stump. But from these shapeless, gnarled, distorted stumps, the branches would grow again and produce great fruit.

This is an image of God working in us, molding, “cutting” us if you will, so that our lives can produce good fruit. It is also a powerful image of the Church which at times must be pruned, purified, renewed, converted, and conformed more and more to Christ. Sometimes cutting things out is required to make things stronger and more productive. God prunes us when He is about to take us into a new season of growth and development. This it true in our own life and in the life of the Church.  

We tend to seek perfection in the Church. We look for the perfect parish, the perfect pastor, the perfect worship experience. It proves to be a long and frustrating search because the Church is human and where there is humanity there is weakness and limitations.

The Church is not a community of saints, but a community of sinners, clinging to the vine which is Christ to become saints. Some see only the human side of the Church and are inclined to move away. But we must also see the divine and life-giving side of the Church. We are united to the vine which is Christ and from that unity comes our spiritual nourishment, our life. The vine will not die, because the vine is Christ Himself, but pruning the branches is an ongoing process.

Fr. Henri Nouwen’s reflection on the Church is worth remembering:

“The Church is a very human organization, but it is also the garden of God’s grace. It is a place where great sanctity keeps blooming. It is in the Church where Christ dwells, invites us to his table, and speaks to us words of eternal love. When we remember that, we may be able to say, ‘I love the Church, and I am glad to belong to it. Loving the Church is our sacred duty. We can only become fruitful when our words and actions come from hearts that love the Church.”

It reminds me of a zany reminder I saw in front of a church which got a lot of reaction:  “Remember, the Lord wants spiritual fruits…not religious nuts.”