V Sunday of Easter (Year B) – May 2, 2021 Remaining in Christ: a commitment and a relationship with God and our neighbor Acts 9: 26-31 / Psalm / 1 Jn 3: 18-24 / Jn 15: 1-8
So, what is it that you can do by yourself? I mean, without relying upon anyone for anything. If you keep thinking, you will realize that the answer is, not much or nothing. What can we do without God? Do we need him?
Keep questioning. Why did God think so much of us to give us as our Redeemer his only begotten Son? Why did Jesus give his life for us? The “Why?” questions can go on and on, but others arise: How is it possible for us to be in relationship with God? How would you describe it? Perhaps you might think the answers to these questions are rather obvious. Still, these questions are necessary for strengthening our faith. These simple but profound questions can all be summed up in one answer: God loves us.
Love does not depend on needs, but we are in obvious need of love. God has no need for us but he still made us and he always loves us. God has no need for a relationship with us, his creatures, but he not only made us and loves us, he even seeks union with us.
The words of Jesus in today’s reading from the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John resonate this central truth:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (John 15: 1-5).
One of the great gifts of our faith is the possibility of relationship with God who is so beyond us. Yet not only does he seek to be in relation with us but goes to great lengths to forge a union with us. This union, this relationship, as I have said many times before, is God’s unique initiative but waits for our willingness to respond and remain.
God has no need for us but invites us more and more into union with him in and through Christ. Theologically, we are referring to the fruit of the Incarnation, God becoming human through Christ. Rather than a single event, the Incarnation is both the beginning of a stronger relationship and its continuation and ongoing expression.
The teaching of Jesus brings home the possibility of being in relationship with God and how it is meant to endure and grow. God’s initiative searches for our response, our willingness to love and allow ourselves to be loved.
Notice a key term in the Gospel and second reading from the first letter of John: Remain. The word, remain, is used twice in the very brief second reading and eight times in the equally brief Gospel reading. Do you think the Lord is trying to teach us something? The term signifies making a decision, a firm choice. Remaining is about choosing to be in relationship and making the effort to make the union an authentic one.
It’s not about passing the time or sticking around, but about expressing interest and concern through presence and commitment. In other words, to remain is an active endeavor, not passive. In the words of Jesus, to remain is a reminder that he loves us and seeks to be in union with us and a call to us to understand that we are to be in union with our neighbor.
In the great mystical classic, The Dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena recounts God telling her, “For I could well have supplied each of you with all your needs, both spiritual and material. But I wanted to make you dependent on one another so that each of you would be my minister, dispensing the graces and gifts you have received from me.”¹
It is not only a matter of what do we need from others, but why do we have needs? Why do others have need of us? We are not talking about functions and capabilities, but love. We are talking about God’s very essence and the true basis of our identity.
Saint Mother Teresa writes, “Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other – that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister.”² Love not only defines God, but also defines and identifies us and demonstrates how we are to live and live in communion with him and those around us.
Christ calls us to follow him and be his disciples and to go and make disciples. He calls us to remain in him so that we have life in abundance and have the courage to go and share his love and the gifts he fills us with. This requires a willingness to love and a willingness to be loved.
Jesus invites us to remain in him so that our urge to move ahead is not just a going forth, but a growing forth so that our lives are about continually discovering and appreciating our relationship him and our neighbor.
Peace in the Risen Lord! Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.