This love of God in its fulness resides in Christ, His only begotten Son, and flows from Him to us, like sap from the Vine to the Branches ( Gospel of John 15 : 5 ). Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing for He is our Vine, our source of God’s love, and we are the Branches.. That is why we must remain in Him and He in us in order to be fruitful. That is why He has given us a new commandment to love one another as He has loved us. When we keep this commandment of love we become conduits of His love to others here on earth.

We cannot improve on what Jesus did because His work is already accomplished. What we need to do is rest in His Presence so His love will shine through us by what we do. And, we cannot rest in the Lord’s Presence if we insist on doing things our own way. Jesus is the Way. We don’t have to put on airs, we don’t have to impress others with a show of how wonderful we are, we don’t have to boast of our superior knowledge. We only have to BE, to rest in the Lord’s Presence so He can work through us for the glory of the Father.

The wonderful message of this parable is that Jesus wants to gather us into Himself so we can be participants or sharers in His love. God does not love us for what He can get from us. That would be selfish, and it would place too great a burden on us to measure up. He loves us for what He can GIVE us. If God loved us for what He could get from us, He would not have sent His only begotten Son to die for us. “True love,” St. John reminds us, consists in this, “that God loved us first and sent His son to die for us” ( 1 John 4 : 10 ).

So, if you feel you can only love others for what you can get from them, or for what they can do for you, you are not showing the true love of Christ. You need to love others for what you can do for them just as the prayer of St. Francis says: “It is in giving that we receive.” The most common mistake that people make is to base their love on what’s in it for them rather on what they can GIVE. Pure, unadulterated giving, is the love that came down to earth to save us. For even when we were enemies of God, Christ loved us to death, literally. That is true love, and that is why we must remain in Him, if we want to bear good fruit.

The good news is that Jesus invites us into His love so we can live fruitfully. As branches of the vine, we need to be pruned; we need to cast off whatever hinders the love of God flowing inside us just as branches need pruning to produce good fruit. We live fruitfully, and love fruitfully when we do the things Jesus told us to do: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, welcoming the stranger, taking care of the sick, and visiting those in prison ( Matthew 25 : 31 – 46 ). These, and many other ways of helping one another, show that we live in Christ, and He in us. This is a very active and transforming way of being. It is not a passive, do-nothing engagement.

So, let us wake up to the awesome implications of the Parable of the Vine and the Branches. We must open the blinds shading our hearts to let Him in. Do not look for a reason to help those who yearn for your support. Extending a helping hand, not only washes away the tears from the faces of those you love. It is also a blessing for yourself because it brings you into relationship with Christ within you. To bear good fruit, you have to turn your backs on the things of the world, blemished by sin and darkness, and choose to live in God’s love.

Lord, awaken my soul to let your love shine on me.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy