May 21, 2014Wednesday, 5th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 15:1–6
Gospel: Jn 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
(Daily Gospel
in the Assimilated
Life Experience)
Mixing up two separate maxims, a friend playfully came up with this hybrid: “To forgive is divine and you are the branches”. The first part was taken from “To err is human, to forgive is divine”, while the second from “I am the vine and you are the branches”.
The adulteration however is loaded with meaning. Understood in the light of today’s Gospel reading, the hybrid maxim proclaims that divine forgiveness restores us to the branch from which sin had severed us.
In today’s Gospel, 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.” Jesus was not playing politics when he dangled this promise because in us God has nothing to gain. Apart from God, we have everything to lose.
Meanwhile God will still remain God even without us. The assurance has to be understood in the context of docility and openness to God’s Will. He who remains in God will never ask for anything contrary to God’s Will. Those who remain in God will always merit from the windfall of God’s generosity.
As branches we won’t survive apart from the vine. But we could mix up God and Satan as we blindly attach ourselves to whatever vine that offers happiness. Make no mistake about it: Satan can only offer fleeting happiness while God leads us to everlasting joy. In attaching ourselves to a vine, let’s make sure that that vine is divine and we are the branches! No mix up intended! – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.
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