“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will produce much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” —Gospel of John 15:5

“Jesus is the vine, you are the branches.” What does this mean?

Jesus is the source of divine love. He is the son of God. He was sent by His Heavenly Father so that we might not perish but have eternal life. The love of Christ flows from Him to us, like the flow of sap from the vine to the branches, so that we will produce much fruit. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing for He is our vine, our source of God’s love. That is why we must remain in Him and He in us in order to be fruitful., and that is why He has given us a new commandment to love one another as He has loved us so we could be 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. But, 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 thing about this teaching 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. 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.”

So, if you feel you can only love others for what you can get from them, you are not showing true love. 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. That is not 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 real love, and that is why we must remain in Him.

The good news is that Jesus invites us into His love so we can live fruitfully. We have to wake up to the awesome generosity of this invitation. We have to open the blinds of our hearts and let Him in and shine on us. We have to turn our backs on the things of darkness and choose to live in Christ’s love if we must bear good fruit.
Lord. Awaken my spirit and let your love shine on me.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy