To read the texts click on the texts: Acts 15:1-6; Jn 15:1-8
John 15:1-17 are the verses
for today and the next two days. These verses contain the final “I am” sayings
in the Gospel (vv. 1, 5) and introduce the central metaphor of this unit: the
vine and its branches. Jesus uses, in the first verse of Chapter 15, a common
symbol of the world at that time: Vine. While in 15:1, the relationship with
Jesus and the Father is stressed, in 15:5, when the metaphor is used again,
Jesus does so in the context of his relationship with his disciples. Thus, the
focus of the metaphor is interrelationship. If God is the vine dresser, Jesus
is the vine and the disciples are the branches. All three are required for the
production of fruit.
God, as the vine dresser, is
the origin or source and, because Jesus comes from the Father, he is the true
vine. God acts in his capacity as vine dresser and does what is best for the
vine. Those branches that do bear fruit are pruned and those that do not, are
cut away. This means that those of the community who express their union with
Jesus by acting it out in works of love are pruned, whereas those who do not
show their faith in action are cut off. The disciples have been given an
insight into how they must remain in the vine, through the words that Jesus has
spoken to them and through the loving actions that he performed, symbolized in
the washing of the feet. They must learn from these actions and realize that,
without abiding or remaining in Jesus, they can do nothing. Their own power or
effort will never be sufficient for the works they have to perform. These can
only be done if accompanied by the grace that Jesus gives.
“I am the vine, you are the
branches” in 15:5 is not a repetition of what was said earlier. Rather it
stresses the relationship of the community with Jesus. Without the vine, the
branches are nothing. Mutual indwelling will result in bearing fruit. If a
branch decides that it wants to live apart from the vine, it is in effect
asking for death. Life apart from the vine is not possible for any branch.
Mutual indwelling is not
merely with a single branch and the vine but with all the branches in the vine
with one another. This unity of the branches among themselves will result in
fruit bearing. This unity will also be a witness for the world and the
glorification of the vine dresser: God. When people see the works of the
disciples, it will lead them to glorify the Father.
All too often
Christianity has been understood as a religion that has only the individual
dimension. The communitarian dimension has been neglected. This is seen in so
many of the Sacraments (which are both individual and communitarian) being
treated and regarded as private devotions. The approach of many Christians has
often been: My God and I. This approach is to misunderstand Christianity and
all that Jesus stood for. The metaphor of today makes explicit that mutual
indwelling is at the heart of the preaching of Jesus, and that Christianity,
while it surely has an individual dimension, just as surely has a communitarian
dimension. I am, as a Christian my brother’s and sister’s keeper. Their joys
and sorrow, their trials and tribulations, their successes and failures, have
to be as real to me as my own if I am to be a Christian in the true sense of
the word. The Christian does make an individual commitment and choice to follow
Jesus but he/she makes it in and through a community.
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