Jesus used accessible, everyday images in his teaching.
Today’s image is the vine.
We are the shoots, Jesus is the trunk, the Father is the vinedresser.
Let me look first at pruning.
The basic idea in pruning is clear:
some parts of the plant are cut away
so that the parts that remain grow as the gardener wants.
I discovered on the internet that, for vines,
there is quite a large cutting back in the winter
and modest, ongoing, cutting back,
more like pinching out,
in spring and summer.
The pruning is to make sure that good size grapes are produced,
in good sized bunches…….Good fruit.
Taking the image seriously,
we can reflect on different sorts of pruning:
pruning that is major and infrequent,
and pruning that is minor and ongoing.
We should also notice that pruning is done by the gardener,
the vinedresser.
It happens to the shoots, and they respond.
Pruning comes from outside ourselves.
How are we pruned?
Well, I currently feel like I have just had a major ‘pruning’….
I have just retired after 41 years, full-on, fulltime working.
My familiar routines have gone;
all sorts of things I used to expend energy on –
teaching, staff management, personnel issues, strategy –
are no longer my concern.
Certainly, numerous aspects of my life have been pruned away.
Everyone has life events of this form,
events that bring upheaval, and a leaving of something behind:
and so are a kind of pruning.
What is needed to make such pruning fruitful?
The gospel answers that question:
listening attentively to Jesus,
being truly connected to Him,
is fundamental to a pruning being fruitful:
whether it is the pruning of a large change in life
or a much smaller, day to day, one.
We are the shoots,
Jesus is the trunk.
The shoots are nourished through the trunk.
The meaning is clear:
being connected to Jesus, listening attentively to Him,
is essential for our true life.
What should we do to stay connected to,
to be attentive to, Jesus?
There are several essential ingredients:
listening to the scriptures and the teaching of the Church;
spending time building relationships with fellow Christians;
praying;
joining the celebration of Mass, especially on Sunday.
What does it mean to be connected to Jesus?
It means we place our trust in Him:
in his saving power;
in his forgiveness;
in the new life he brings;
in his teaching.
This is what is meant in the second reading
when it says God wants us to
believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.
Being strongly connected to Jesus has consequences:
Just as trunk provides water for the shoots,
so Jesus shares his Holy Spirit with us
and through that Spirit
we are moved to reach out to the poor;
we are moved to share with others our faith in Him; and
we love one another.
In short: through Jesus’ Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
we are fruitful – which is what the vinedresser wants.
And so we thank God for working in us, and through us.