In the old Testament vine and branches image was used for the people of Israel and
their covenant relationship with God. When people failed to live up to their calling God
spoke to them through prophets as in Jeremiah 2:21: ‘I planted a choice vine. How did
you turn degenerate and become a wild vine’. Jesus is now the choice vine and he
says ‘I am the true vine’; the branches are the community of disciples, we the church.
This implies both the church remaining in Christ the vine and continuing his mission for
the salvation/wellbeing of the world. Vine and branches is a comforting and challenging
imagery. If we are the branches of Christ the vine, then Christ is the life source in us.
However, we the branches have independent mind and hearts; we decide whether to
let the life source of the vine flow into us. If we do, the branches will have same mind of
Christ, life transforming power, a power that changes personal lives and the world. The
gospel of Christ is the fertilizer that flourishes the branches to bear fruits. Holy Spirit is
the energy that flows through the vine; the fruits the branches bear are fruits of the
spirit, fruits of love.
A withered branch is an image of everything wrong in the world, life letting be defeated
by negativity, resentments, vengeance and lies and the branches are not able to
photosynthesize the light of Christ to grow and bear fruits! There is a story about
Leonardo da Vinci; ‘early in his career he was painting a picture of Christ and found a
handsome young man to model for his portrait of Jesus. Many years later, da Vinci was
painting a picture that included Judas. He walked through streets of Florence looking
for the perfect person to model the great betrayer. He found someone fierce looking,
evil-seeming enough to do the job. He went up to the man and asked if he would
model for him. The man looked at him and said: ‘you don’t remember me, but I know
you. Years ago, I was the model for your picture of Jesus’. In baptism we are modeled
after Christ; to be cut off from him would be an unloving existence. Appreciate who we
are in Christ to form in us a self grounded in love. Beauty of Christian journey is when
Christ’s love radiates in us; cut off from him [from love] could unleash all demons in us!
Do we see us as branches grafted to Christ the vine and allow the gospel to be the
power flowing in us to witness to his kingdom of love? The wine made out of fruits of
the vine [grapes] is symbol of joy, peace of the kingdom of God, harmony in life.
Pruning of the branches is necessary for the branches to grow healthy and bear good
fruits; pruning is need for repentance, all trials and challenges of life we endure; it is
cutting away selfish, wild unloving growth in us. Neale Walsch: ‘yearning for a new way
will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that. You cannot hold on to the old
all the while declaring that you want something new; the old will deny the new; the old
will decry the new. There is only one way to bring in the new, you must make room for
it’. Pruning or letting go things in life that diminish our capacity to respond to God’s
love flowing in us is the way to bear fruits that change lives, repair hurts and reconnect
the broken pieces of life.
St. John asks: ‘do our hearts condemn us? God is greater than our hearts! Let us lean
on his mercy, respond in love and meet Christ in life’s highways and backroads, in
every corner we encounter fellow human beings. Because, vine and branches is also
symbol of fellowship of all Christians. Christ the vine is alive in all the faithful through
our communion in his body and blood, how we remain in Christ. Our common witness
to Christ’s flowing love in us transforms the world, give hope to a tired world!