Wednesday, 02 May 2018 5th Week of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 15:1-6 Gospel: John 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower. If any of my branches doesn’t bear fruit, he breaks it off; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit that it may bear even more fruit.
“You are already made clean by the word I have spoken to you; live in me as I live in you. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself but has to remain part of the vine; so neither can you if you don’t remain in me.
“I am the vine and you are the branches. As long as you remain in me and I in you, you bear much fruit; but apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain in me is thrown away as they do with branches and they wither. Then they are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you remain in me and my words in you, you may ask whatever you want and it will be given to you. My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit: it is then that you become my disciples.”
D@iGITAL EXPERIENCE
(THE GOSPEL IN THE
ASSIMILATED LIFE
EXPERIENCE)
This is one of the favorite expressions of a longtime friend that never fails to plunge me into deep reflection: “To forgive is divine and you are the branches”. It is a corruption of two independent maxims, namely, “To err is human, to forgive is divine”, and “I am the vine and you are the branches”. The word “divine” provides the nexus. But I am happy with the mix up because it reveals a deeper insight into the theology behind today’s Gospel reading.
When Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches”, he was saying that we have become part of his body (through the church). Thanks to the forgiveness that is totally divine, we human beings have entered into a relationship with God that is as intimate as the relationship between the vine and the branches.
Jesus invites us to remain in him much as a branch must remain with the vine in order to live. He even dangled this promise: “If you remain in me and my words in you, you may ask whatever you want and it will be given to you.” This may sound political but it is not a prize God gives to us for remaining in him. It is rather a statement about the quality of petitions of people who remain intimately united with Him. Such petitions are worth granting because those who remain in him will not ask for anything contrary to the will of God.
It is in this context that the corrupted sentence “To forgive is divine and you are the branches” makes sense. Because God’s forgiveness is divine, it is still possible for sinners to be united to Him like branches to the vine. The only conditions are true repentance and total submission to God’s Will. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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