“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”
FIFTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER (B)
APRIL 28, 2024
Acts 9: 26-31;
Psalm 22;
I John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8
by Jude Siciliano, OP
Dear Preachers:
My grandparents
were landowners. You have to understand that in Brooklyn, to be called a
“landowner” was stretching the term a bit. In truth, they had a backyard. In the
center of the yard was a cement slab “patio” and around it grandpa grew
vegetables and fruits. He had 3 fruit trees – two fig and one peach. The fig
trees were better suited to a more Mediterranean climate and so, to protect them
through the harsh northeastern winters, he would tie up the branches close to
the tree trunks and wrap the tightly bound fig trees in black tar paper, with
the hope that the black would absorb at least some heat from the winter sun.
Through the winters we could see those two fig trees in the backyard. They
looked like thick wrapped carpets, surrounded by the barren, sometimes
snow-covered garden, waiting out the winters.
But after an especially frigid winter one of the fig trees almost died. Grandpa
decided he would prefer two peach and only one fig tree. “Less wrapping and
unwrapping,” he said. So, he cut the fig tree down to its trunk, took a branch
from the peach tree and grafted it to the fig tree’s trunk. He “bandaged” the
spot where the two were joined and told us we had to wait to see if the graft
took. If it didn’t, the peach branch would show the signs of a failed graft – it
would die. If the graft did work, we kids wondered, would we get figs or peaches
from the tree? The graft did work and the next summer we saw the first fruits
from the grafted tree – peaches. The trunk provided the life and the grafted
branch kept its individuality and produced delicious peaches. But without the
life from the root stock, the branch would have died and we would be without
grandma’s peach jam and cobblers. If, in the grafting process, there was any
“pain” to the two trees, it was transitory and was meant for a fruit-yielding
purpose.
We are like that branch attached to the root stock. Using similar agricultural
image, the vine, Jesus says we have to remain with him if we are to live and
bear fruit. Through Baptism we have been “grafted” to Jesus; from him we draw
our life. A peach tree branch yielded a peach tree. If my grandfather had used a
plum branch, guess what kind of tree he would have gotten when he grafted it to
the stock. My grandmother would have made plum, instead of peach, jam from the
fruit. We are grafted to Jesus, the true vine and still, we keep our
individuality and unique gifts for: music, storytelling, cooking, writing,
organizing, nurturing, convincing, etc.
We are each different, but we are all drawing life from Christ as we live our
Christian vocations in the world. No two of us are identical Christian twins; we
are all unique. But the source of our life, Jesus tells us, is the same, “Remain
in me, as I remain in you....” If one of us kids had pulled the grafted branch
from its root base, besides being recipients of my grandfather’s ire, we would
have been left holding a mere and useless stick, with no future peach pies or
cobblers for us. Each of us, joined to Christ, can yield much fruit, not only
for ourselves, but for those who look to us for help, encouragement and
forgiveness.
Each time we gather here for worship we express our desire to stay united to
Christ and to one another. We do that in our liturgical celebration by hearing
the Word, when it is proclaimed, in silent listening; responding with prayers
stirred up by what we have heard and then, as a community, by receiving the
Eucharist. We do similarly at other sacramental celebrations.
As we watched my grandfather at work we knew he had good intentions, and all of
us would be the recipients of his labor and our waiting. Still, the cutting part
looked painful to the two trees. Is there pain for us too when we are pruned by
God? What kind of pain? Doesn’t a kind of cutting or pruning take place here at
our Eucharist when we hear the Word proclaimed in our assemblies? Jesus says we
are “pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.” God’s Word constantly
speaks to us and hearing that Word is a way for us to “remain on the vine.” We
are listeners who need to keep our ears tuned to that Word because it reminds us
of God’s on-going love and readiness to forgive.
If God has any “pruning” to do so that we can become more fruitful disciples of
Jesus, it can happen when we are attentive to the Word. What we hear may enable
us to realize how often we have missed or ignored God’s outreach to us. It is
something like the pain and embarrassment we feel when a friend has tried to do
something nice for us and we missed the kindness, took it for granted or
misinterpreted it. Such moments can be very painful indeed and can remind us not
to let it happen again, lest we lose or damage our friendship. That’s similar to
the “pruning” God is constantly doing through the Word. Hearing that Word we can
recognize and respond with more awareness to God’s loving gestures towards us.
We gather each week to stay connected to the vine and to one another, the
branches. We also pray and resolve here today to be more attentive and
responsive listeners.
How else can we hear Jesus’ word and thus “remain” in him? Besides liturgical
celebrations, there are many ways to place ourselves in a listening mode; open
to the possibility of hearing God’s Word. Some immediately come to mind: parish
scripture prayer groups and bible study classes; private prayer, scripture
reading and meditation; reading past and present spiritual writers, etc.
But God speaks in other, perhaps less “formal” or obvious ways through:
conversations with family and friends; counselors and self-help groups; casual
conversations with people whose paths we cross daily, etc. We remember too Jesus
telling us that he could be found among the poor and outcasts. When we are with
them, we also strive to be listeners. Besides one-on-one encounters with people
in need, what about those reports that come our way through print and internet
media about social problems in our community, nation and around the world? Can
the media also be an instrument Jesus uses to speak his words to us and help us
“remain” in him and “bear much fruit?”
In the opening to our second reading, John spells out to us the fruit we will
bear in union with Jesus, “Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in
deed and truth.”
Click here for a link to this
Sunday’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm