Stay Rooted And Connected To The Vine

Stay Rooted And Connected To The Vine

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B

St. Mark Catholic Church, St. Paul, MN

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Sisters and brothers, Jesus is not simply an inspiring teacher. He is not one among the many. He should not be paired with religious figures like Mohammed or Buddha or Confucius. Jesus is distinct and distinctive. Why? Because throughout his life and ministry, Jesus spoke and acted in the very person of God. It is the reason why he compels a choice like no other religious founder or philosopher. He says you are either with me or against me (Matt. 12:30). He says “The Father and I are one” (Jn. 10:30). Unlike other religious and philosophical figures, Jesus forgave sins, raised the dead, healed many of their infirmities, rebuked and expelled unclean spirits from possessed people. No other religious founder acted and spoke the way Jesus did. In today’s Gospel, we read one of Jesus’ “I AM” statements: “I am the true vine.” As soon as he calls himself the true vine he says we are the branches. Those words bring to mind other statements like it in the New Testament: “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life in me” (Jn. 6:53); “Remain in me as I remain in you” (Jn. 15:4); “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).”

What do all these statements have in common? What do they point to together? The fact that Jesus is not simply an inspiring teacher to whom we listen. For the Christian faith, Jesus is a field of force in which we participate, a body in which we are cells and molecules, an ocean in which we swim. There is a living and ongoing relationship between Jesus and his followers. Jesus says that just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own, so neither can we unless we remain in him. To make the statement more dramatic, Jesus says, “…without me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). You know, many people till date admire Abraham Lincoln and consider him the greatest president of all time. Many people around the world admire Mahatma Gandhi. Many Catholics admire and venerate great saints like St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio, St. Pope John Paul II etc. But no matter how much you admire Abraham Lincoln as a political figure, no matter how much you admire Gandhi as a moral hero, no matter how much you admire Padre Pio as a spiritual and saintly hero, you will never be tempted to say that without any of them you could not live. You cannot say unless you are grafted unto any of them, you can do nothing. But about himself Jesus says, “…without me you can do nothing.” 

Jesus is the Word made flesh. He is the very  embodiment of power by which God makes and sustains the world. What does that mean? It means that anything that exists, exists through him. The Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All that exists came to be through him.” If Jesus is one teacher among the many, he wouldn’t make that claim. But if Jesus is in fact the Word by and through which all things exist, that means we find our very being in him. He is like the sunlight that illumines the day. If you take away the sun, you take away the light. He is the air that we breathe. If you take away the oxygen, we cease to exist. Our existence and life come from Jesus, the Word of God (Logos). That is why Jesus can say apart from me, you can do nothing; apart from me you can bear no fruit. 

What’s the implication of this? Every person on the planet— Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Christian, non-believer is in a sense rooted in Christ whether they know it or not. On the question, what’s the point being a Christian if everyone is rooted in Jesus? Christians have been given the vast privilege of knowing Jesus in a personal way. As John tells us, the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. The Word, the Logos by which all things exist, by which all science and philosophy operate is a person Christians have come to know as Jesus Christ. What every science, every philosophy, every other religion see vaguely, Christians radiantly and clearly see in Jesus Christ. He has a voice, we can hear him in a tone of human voice and he is leading us to eternal life. That is the difference it makes. In his first letter, St. John beautifully writes, “What we have seen with our eyes, what we have touched with our hands, the word of life, this is what we share with you.” Christians have been given the great privilege to participate, to share and be in a relationship with Jesus the Logos who through him and with him and in him all things came to be and stays in being. 

So, why in the world would someone wander away? Why in the world are you considering abandoning Christianity for something less? When people were walking away from Jesus when he first preached that his flesh is the real food and his blood the real drink, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked if they are going to leave him as well. Responding to him Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the word of  eternal life.” Peter could have said more elegantly, Lord, to whom shall we go, you are the Word of eternal life. If you decide to go away from Jesus Christ, no matter where you decide to go to, you are walking further away from the fullness of the Logos. If you are standing on the North pole, any step you take in any direction is a step away from that summit. If you go in search of truth, goodness, beauty, or love away from Jesus, it is a step down. It is a descension, not ascension. It is a declension away from the Summit, the terminus a quo and terminus ad quem of every human person. What today’s Gospel is telling us is to stay close to the fire. We Christians have been given this incomparable privilege of knowing personally, physically the Logos of God who is Jesus. And Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.” Now do not look at it as magic words that if you ask for anything, ask for a luxury car in the name of Jesus you will get it. That’s not what it means. It means that if you stay rooted in Jesus, you will be aligned to God’s own mind. And whatever you ask for in that attitude, you will certainly receive, for you will ask only what God originally intended for you. I urge you therefore to stay close to the fire.