As we prepare to meet our Risen Lord in the Holy Eucharist let us turn to Jesus’ Mother and our Mother in prayer, so our adoration of Him and reception of Him might bear fruit in our lives, in our families and in our world.

John 15; 1-8. Fifth Sunday in Easter. May 3rd, 2015

In our Gospel today, we continue our celebration of Easter and are invited to mediate on the beautiful image of the vine and the branches. Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches. Grafted onto Christ we are called to bear great fruit in our lives. Incorporated into the, through the gift of our baptism, we are all grafted onto the Vine—Jesus Himself.

This grafting to the vine occurs through the gift of our baptism. Through it, we are incorporated into the mystery of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, and given already a share, through grace, in His victory. From this gift of grace, which flows through us from the Vine, it is possible for us to bear great fruit in our lives.

Our baptismal grace, which has it source in the pierced Heart of Christ, is kept alive, strengthens and grows through all the Sacraments. If we are properly disposed to receive them, this Sacramental grace, keep us safely attached to the Vine. If we become separated, this Sacramental grace can heal our attachment, and it can strengthen and perfect our union with Jesus and with one another. We in fact, actually meet the risen Christ, the True Vine, intimately in all the Sacraments, but uniquely, substantially, physically we come in contact with Him in the most Blessed of Sacraments--the Holy Eucharist, in which He is present to us in His Resurrected and now glorified body.

But in order to bear fruit, Jesus says something sometimes difficult for us to hear. He says that we have to be pruned. Right now, it is springtime and we can see the results of our pruning from last fall. The roses bloom but only if and to the degree we prune them first. Without pruning we would not have the same amount of beautiful roses or maybe none at all.

What prunes us, first of all, is the word spoken to us by God- His Holy Word prunes us. When we obey the truth of the Word of God it corrects us and sets us on a right course. We then begin to produce the fruits of righteousness, which means we produce the works of God by doing and fulfilling His Holy Will.

Another way we are pruned is through our acceptance of daily trials and sufferings. These may be large or small; they be the suffering of an illness or loss of someone we love; but for the most part the are merely the little annoyances, the little snares and trips of everyday life. Nevertheless trials are another way we are pruned.

And through the example of our faithfulness during these trials, these prunings, we not only grow in love of Christ, but we grow in love of others and lead other souls to Christ—this is the fruit we desire—this is fruit of holiness which stems from a pure heart, pruned and fashioned into the image and likeness of the Pierced Sacred Heart of the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

To deeper understand the fruitfulness that comes from pruning it is necessary look at the best example of fruitfulness found in the Sacred Scriptures- that is, the fruitfulness of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The word used in today’s text for “prune” can also be translated “made pure.” When we see purity in the Scripture, we should immediately think of the purity of the Virgin. The angel of the Lord, St. Gabriel spoke the word of God to her- “you will conceive and bear a Son.” The Virgin’s response, “fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum-- let it be done unto me according to Thy Word.”

These words of the Blessed Virgin Mary show immediately the fruit of her faith- the fruit of her hope and the fruit of her great charity or love. St. Elizabeth inspired by the Holy Spirit says of Mary, “Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb…who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me and blessed is she who believed of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Her faithfulness brought forth the fruit of our Salvation, and the fruit of being the mother of all of God’s sons and daughters born at the baptismal font.

We see in light of the resurrection that we too now have the power available to us in the Sacraments to follow in the steps of the Virgin Mary and be fruitful, if we allow ourselves to be pruned, to be made pure. During Jesus’ public ministry someone said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” Jesus responded, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Saint Augustine said, “The Blessed Virgin Mary conceived Jesus-the Word of God, in her soul before she ever conceived Him in her womb.” The Virgin Mary is the one who always listened to and faithfully obeyed the Word of God… the words of her divine Son, who is the Word of God made flesh. She observed the word of God faithfully in her every day life, it directed and animated everything she said and did.

Through Grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit we need to imitate The Blessed Virgin and allow Jesus to be conceived in our souls as well-This is what purity is all about. Purity is about so much more than just our bodies; it is about our whole life. Are we living our lives in purity to the truth, the truth that comes from God and spoken to us through the natural law and through the teachings of the Church, are we faithful to the cross?

By faith, believing in the Words Christ speaks to us, and putting them into effect in our own lives through the grace of the Sacraments, by faithfulness even in our trials, we too are made more and more pure. We are more deeply grafted onto Christ, who is the vine and we too are made fruitful as His grace courses through us out to others. With the help of the Blessed Virgin, we are able more fully to remain with Christ through the trials of life and even become filled with joy in the midst of sorrows bearing great fruit in our world.

As we prepare to meet our Risen Lord in the Holy Eucharist let us turn to Jesus’ Mother and our Mother in prayer, so our adoration of Him and reception of Him might bear fruit in our lives, in our families and in our world. Let us ask her to help us approach her Divine Son with faith and confidence, trusting in His Goodness and Love for us. Holy Mary, mother most pure. Help us to be pure, may our lives reflect the Word of God, may our actions be the actions of your Son alive in us…
May we be used as instruments of God’s grace and mercy in order to save souls and bring them into union with us and through us, with the Son and the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit…. At this and every Holy Mass, help us to offer our hearts totally to Jesus through you, so we may be faithful to the foot of the cross and birth Him anew to the world; may this be the fruit of our worthy reception of Him at this Holy Mass. Amen.