OMELIE / Omelie EN

29 apr 2018

29/04/2018   5th Sunday of Easter - B 

29/04/2018   5^th Sunday of Easter - B 

Reading 1, Acts 9,26-31 * Psalm 21 * Reading 2, First John 3,18-24 * Gospel, John15,1-8

After looking at the image of the good shepherd on last Sunday, today we listen to Jesus while He introduces another image that he Himself uses in order for us to be able to know Him. He begins with saying: “I am…”. This expression is not just a way to introduce Himself, using it he actually presents Himself as God. Whoever knows the Bible cannot have forgotten the sentence with which God revealed Himself to Moses: “I am he who is”! “I am” is the name of God, and Jesus many times uses this sentence talking about Himself, putting it together with an image through which He reveals us how His relationship with us is, how His love for men is growing.

Today He tells us “I am the true vine”. A Jewish person would have understood at once. The vine and the vineyard are images used many times in the Sacred Scriptures in order to talk about the people if Israel and describe its love relationship with God. Prophets and Psalms use this image as well in order to give an idea of the disappointment of God when the people does not answer to His desires and commands. God, as a matter of fact, is like the vinedresser who, when the time of harvesting comes, is expecting ripe grapes, and instead he finds wild and unripe grapes. That vineyard will end up in abandonment. And it will not be replaced by another vineyard, but by only one vine, just one. “I am the true vine”: the vine that meets the expectations of the Father, the vine that bears useful fruits in order to make the wine of the Kingdom, the vine that will enjoy the attention and care of God is Jesus. But not Jesus alone: He is now so united to His disciples, that they too are part of the same plant, like vine stocks of a vine, and then they enjoy the same acceptance by the Father. “You are the branches”. The branches bear the fruits of the vine, therefore they are one thing with it, they are indispensible for it. Jesus is now trying to console and hearten the disciples, but also to encourage them to really stick to Him. They will not need to worry about the result of their life, the only thing they will have to worry about is keeping the unity with Him, the Son of God: no doubts the results will come. It will not be enough to be called Christians, not even to think to be so, instead there will be need for the disciples to be truly united with Jesus, otherwise they will be at risk to become useless, or, even worse, a burden in the community and the Church, without any meaning in the world, like salt with no taste.

This is also the warning that the apostle John is giving us in his first letter: “Our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine” What does something active mean? I believe it means to become servant, to be available, ready to take upon me the needs of my brother’s or of the community. There are a lot of Christians that are not good at making up speeches, not even prayers, but they are always there when I ask for a favor, when there is the need to get something done. There are Christians that take upon them a weekly task, all year long or for many years, and they are not trying to be noticed for that. They know what genuine love is, because everything they do, they would do it as if it was for the Lord, happy enough that He will be the only one to see it, the only one to compensate them. John tells us other consoling words: if our heart is reproaching us for something, we can confide in God, who loves us so much to dwell within us. We, in order to please Him and love Him, commit ourselves to follow His commandments. His spirit then dwells within us, enlighten us and gives us strength for our journey on this Earth.

There are difficult situation to deal with inside the Church for the disciples too, misunderstandings and mistrust. Saint Paul had experience of those in Jerusalem after his conversion. Luke, in the Acts, records the first steps of the newly-converted Saul, his courage, his zeal and the danger in which he found himself. He was ready even to die for his Lord, very well aware, in fact, that Jesus had died on the cross for him. His life was bearing much fruits because the was united with the True Vine, and this fruits was a great love for men, a love that was pushing him to announce the Lord to everyone, a kind of love that truly could have been defined “something active and genuine”.

Today, pushed by Jesus Himself, we promise to stick always with Him, to grow in our heart an intimate union with His desires, His will, His sacrifice, His heart surrendered to the Father. We will exercise in every moment of our day, and so our life will always be a benediction, for us first of all, but also for all the brothers and sisters we meet and for all the people already loved by the Father.