YEAR B: HOMILY/REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (2)

YEAR B: HOMILY/REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B

TOPIC: THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES

BY: Fr. Mike Lagrimas

 

Gospel: Jn 15:1-8

Message # 381: “Offer Me Fragrant Flowers”

1. The Marian Message

a) The month of May is the month of Mary. The reason is obvious: it is springtime in countries with temperate climate; it is summer in tropical countries. And during this month, flowers are in bloom. As expression of our filial devotion and love, we bring flowers to Mary. That is why there is the Mayflower devotion, not necessarily because of the flowers, but because of Mary. In fact, one Marian title is “Rosa Mystica” (Mystical Rose).

b) The name “Rosary” comes from “rose”, a certain kind of flower. And “rosarium” literally means “rose garden”. That is why when we pray the rosary with full devotion and piety, we offer to Mary a garden of roses, which do not wither and die. And this is our way of expressing our love and devotion to her, long after the month of May is gone.

c) The Blessed Mother reminds us during this month of May to offer her flowers every day. But she is not talking about physical flowers, which, though beautiful and fragrant, still fade and wither. The fragrant flowers she asks us to offer her are spiritual flowers: prayer, trust and love.

d) “Offer me the fragrant flowers of your prayer” (letter e). She asks her priests to gather the people in prayer, and “form with your heavenly Mother a true cenacle of prayer” in preparation for the “Second Pentecost”. Prayer should be frequent and from the heart, and should be done with love and perseverance. Next to the Eucharist, she has invariably implored us to pray the rosary together with her.

e) “Offer me the fragrant flowers of your trust” (letter f). Around us we see so much pain, struggles and frustrations. The enemy makes us believe that our efforts are futile. Such is the way the devil operates: “My Adversary is trying you with the temptation of doubt and of discouragement.”

Succumbing to this temptation will surely stop us in our work for the Lord. There will be times when we hear some people expressing doubts as to the authenticity of the messages in the Blue Book: “In these times, Satan is ensnaring very much even this Work of love of mine, seeking to sow division among you” (letter h). These are all subtle ways of attacks by the devil to tempt us with doubts and discouragement. She tells us: “Begin anew to listen to me with the purity of little children…with the simplicity of the poor, and follow me with the abandonment of children.”

f) “Offer me with the fragrant flowers of your love” (letter g). The greatest enemy is selfishness or egoism. This is the most potent weapon of the devil for it directly works against love. So she urges us to follow the commandment of Jesus: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Concretely, she advises us: “Do not judge; do not criticize; do not condemn. Be kind, gentle and merciful to everyone.”

g) These flowers of prayer, trust and love are what the Blessed Mother desires that we offer her during this month of May “as a most welcome homage”. These will surely make her happy and give her immense consolation in her pains and sufferings during these times.

 

2. The Sunday Gospel

a) The Gospel this Sunday is the metaphor of the vine and the branches. Jesus is the vine, the Father is the vine grower, and we are the branches. This image brings two important lessons, which are too vital in our Christian life: the need to always remain united with Jesus, and the need to be pruned.

b) “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me, you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5)

The greatest folly of man nowadays is to think that he can live without God; and worse, that he is God! We see this in people who do not anymore pray because they are so self-sufficient : rich, famous, successful. The classic example of this is the Beatles. At the height of their popularity, they said: “We are more famous than God!” That was the start of their fall. And there are those who think and act like God. Look at those people who are powerful and rich. They use their power and money to bring other people to submission. We have politicians and lawmakers who formulate and implement laws, which are directly against the laws of God: legalizing abortion, divorce, same sex marriages, and many others. And of course, there are the scientists who pursue their ambition to “create” and duplicate human beings through cloning and the manipulation of human embryos. They are acting like God.

The Gospel is a reminder and a strong warning to all people. Jesus is God; He is the source of all life and this world and everything. Living apart from him is not only foolish, but totally impossible. Without Jesus, nothing can come into being: “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was God…All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be” (Jn 1:1-3). That is why it is quite essential that we remain with him at all times, like branches to the vine.

c) How do we remain with Jesus? In Baptism we have become God’s children and were incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. In olden times, when adult baptism was still very common, there was only one celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion. These are the three sacraments that incorporated us – or ‘grafted’ us – into Christ. We have become members of the family of God, and members of the Body of Christ: He is the vine, we are the branches.

Jesus urges us to remain with him, to be close to him, and to be united with him. This is what holiness or sanctity is all about. When we are one with Jesus, and since he is God, we become sharers in the life of God. That is holiness. A Benedictine abbot, Dom Anscar Vonier (+1906), wrote: “Our sanctity is this: that we participate more and more in his life; that we are more and more his. How is this incorporation brought about? In many ways. All the graces of the sacraments are ours, which bring about that incorporation and carry it to perfection. The Holy Spirit proceeds from Christ, and gives us the very nature of Christ and draws us all into Christ.”

d) What separates us from Jesus? First, apostasy: the total rejection of the Christian Faith. We are now witnessing the great apostasy. People in big numbers are leaving the faith and joining non-Christian churches or denominations, rejecting faith in Jesus as the Son of God. There are even those who totally deny the existence of God.

Second, by grave or mortal sin. When we are in sin, we lose the sanctifying grace. This is the grace that enables us to share in the life of God. So when we lose the sanctifying grace because of sin, we lose our connection or spiritual relation with God. We are like branches cut off from the vine: we are spiritually dead. But, fortunately for us, God does not give up on us. He continues to offer us His life, and this is through the sacraments of Reconciliation or Confession and the Eucharist. In Confession, he forgives our sins and we are reconciled with him. As a result, we obtain new life. And in the Eucharist, we receive the life-giving food, the Body and Blood of Christ. He sustains and nourishes us in the divine life through the Eucharist. And aside from these two, all the other sacraments give us sacramental graces to strengthen our unity and bond with Jesus, and to increase and intensify our participation in His life.

e) For those who persist in the life of sin, they are spiritually dead. So when they die, still in the state of grave sin, they cannot enter heaven. This is clear in the words of Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday: “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned” (Jn 15:6). These words should terrify us and seriously lead us to avoid sin at all costs.

f) The second lesson is about the need for pruning in order to bear much fruit: “My Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit” (Jn 15:2). Not only do we need to remain with Jesus. Being with Jesus also means sharing in his life. And his life is that of love, that is, sharing and bearing fruits for others.

If we are united with him, but we do not bear fruits of love, we are just like parasites attached to the vine. The heavenly Father will cut us off from the tree. We have no business being with Jesus. This is very clear in the life of many nominal Christians. They are members of the Church; but they seldom go to Church and participate in the life and liturgy of the community. They are just members in name. There are also those so-called “sarado-katoliko”. They are often seen in church liturgy and parish activities. But they are most zealous in spreading gossips and intrigues, stingy in giving contributions and service but generous in criticizing and maligning everybody. A quotation aptly describes them: “There are many who like to serve God, but only in advisory positions.” All words and no action. They cannot just be considered fruitless branches; but they are more like harmful weeds crawling all over the tree. The heavenly Father takes them out as well.

g) But for those branches that are already bearing fruits, they will still have to be pruned so that they will bear more abundant fruits. A branch, which is pruned becomes more fruitful because the nutrients do not go to waste but are channeled more directly to the fruit-bearing parts.

In Christian life, pruning is seen more in terms of purification. Sufferings and trials come, but these are not meant to weaken and discourage us, but to purify our motivations and intentions. This is very necessary in order to combat spiritual pride and false humility, the greatest obstacles to genuine holiness. This has been amply and clearly illustrated in the life of the saints.

Pruning could also mean removing the non- essentials from our life, which at times take so much of our resources and energy that could have been put to use for more substantial activities. Along this line, fasting and abstinence are truly helpful. For instance, we can abstain from movies, or TV, or from drinking soda, smoking, useless conversations, and meaningless and wasteful hobbies. As in any corporate business, the idea is to be “mean and lean”, no extra pounds. If you need only one car, why do you still have two cars? If your cell phone is still doing fine, why buy a new one? The attitude of “pruning” is very necessary to maintain growth in our spiritual life. That is why sometimes some crises in life (financial, family, job) are welcome opportunities to learn the value of pruning and the need to cut off the non-essentials in our lifestyle.

h) In relation to the Marian message, the Gospel on the vine and the branches points us to Mary, the perfect Christian. Looking at the life of Mary, she clearly showed us that perfect unity with Jesus. She followed the will of God through and through. She was with Jesus from the first moment of the Incarnation (at the Annunciation), every day during the thirty years in Nazareth, at the first miracle in Cana, up to his crucifixion and burial, and even after the Resurrection. She and Jesus just cannot be separated. That is why practically almost everything that refers to Jesus can be applied, to a lesser degree, to Mary. She is the perfect disciple, the clearest reflection of Jesus.

In our Christian life, Mary is our link to Jesus – not because it is impossible for us to reach Jesus. It was precisely why there was the Incarnation, so that we can relate to God through Jesus, the God-Man. He is the only Mediator between God and man. There is no other parallel mediation. Mary’s mediation is not parallel, but subordinate mediation. If we truly want to follow Jesus, it would be to our best benefit if we turn to Mary and ask for her maternal intercession, being the Mother of God, and the Mother of the Church. If we want to remain with Jesus, we can go to Mary because she will surely lead us to her Son: “Ad Jesum per Mariam.”

The three things, which she asks us to offer to her as fragrant flowers, namely, prayer, trust and love, are the concrete ways through which we remain with Jesus as branches on the vine. She has shown this abundantly in her life. No amount of temptations from the devil and no amount of trials and sufferings can separate us from Jesus is we faithfully and genuinely practice prayer, trust and love in our daily life. And definitely, these will help us bring about abundant fruits of goodness in our life and become healthy and fertile branches of the Eternal Vine.

 

3. Closing Song:

“Sinong Makapaghihiwalay sa Atin sa Pag- ibig ni Kristo?”

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR SHARING IN THE B.E.C.

1. Ano ang bagay/lugar/gawain/tao na naglalayo sa akin kay Kristo?
2. Ano ang kailangan kong “putulin” (“prune”) sa aking mga ugali o gawain upang lalo akong maging mabunga sa kristiyanong buhay?
3. Paanong nakakatulong sa akin ang debosyon kay Mama Mary upang lalong mapalapit ako kay Kristo?

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