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Jesus, the True Vine (Skip to below, Pope's Angelus on same topic today) Homily Sunday, May 14, 5th Sunday of Easter, Mother's Day at St. Joseph Parish, Detroit, and Holy Family Parish, Detroit
Parish life (only for St. Joseph crowd; skim for Holy Family)
Holy Family: Gratitude to be welcomed here; pardon for needing to speed off afterwards… There are many civic and societal holidays in our country, I often refer to them with humor as “pagan holidays,” and am reluctant to celebrate them. Our true homeland is heaven, where the saints and angels live with God in light. But today there is a societal holiday most worthy of mention. The only other non-Catholic holiday I like to celebrate is Thanksgiving, for it is worthy of God, good and true. Today’s holiday is Mother’s day. To all the mothers in our parish, the rest of us extend our warmest affection, and rejoice with you for your marvelous vocation to motherhood. Let us pray that all women who are mothers may courageously and joyfully live out their vocation in the Church. I also wish to point out that, to celebrate Mother’s Day, at the end of this Mass, after our usual short period of adoration, we will have a May Crowning, to recognize our mother, Mary, Mother of the Church, as our Queen and Queen of the Universe. Let her, with her chaste husband Joseph, care for this parish forever. Before proceeding into the theological content of today’s homily, allow me to share with you some good news for next week, that a parishioner of ours, who is a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, Fr. John Ziegler, will be here at the 10:30 Mass. He will be celebrating the tenth year of his priesthood, so please join the rest of the parish at that Mass, and bring some friends, so we can rejoice with him over his vocation, similar to today when we rejoice with our parish’s mothers over their own precious vocation. Furthermore, the Knights of Columbus will be here to invite all the men of this parish to join as members. I am a member myself, and if there’s one Catholic man who hears me today who is not a Knight, let me just tell you we want you in this marvelous Catholic brotherhood, and if you don’t take up our humble invitation, know that both we and you are missing out. A final point pertaining to parish life is the fact that, today, Mother’s day, the Legion of Mary will be ready in the back, as you leave, to discuss with you the Legion of Mary, answer questions, and accept new members. I discussed the Legion of Mary at length two weeks ago, I hope the message struck home. At least consider signing up as an Auxiliary, and then later if you’re ready for more, you can take on larger commitments, as the Lord moves your heart.
The True Vine
With that, I wish to turn to the more spiritual content of today’s scriptures. Jesus describes himself as the “vine.” He is the true vine, the one true vine and there is no other beside him. I suppose you have all seen either photos or videos or even visited vineyards. I remember the great Mosel Valley in Germany, whenever we traveled it, I was always astounded at the kilometers and kilometers of grapes for wine. I even have a priest friend, a holy priest, Fr. Andrew Bloomfield, now just finishing his first year of priesthood at St. John Neumann in Canton; he had spent a year as a monk tending to the vineyards around the abbey. “I am the vine,” Jesus says, “And you are the branches” (cf. Jn 15:1-8). But he says more: “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” These are sobering words. I wish to prove Jesus’ point by example of the contrary. How often in our own nation, even in our own Archdiocese, have we all witnessed the abandonment of the faith, the affirmation of secularism and theological modernism, the abuse of the most sacred liturgy, the outrageous scandals of even the clergy but not only of these, catechesis that amounts to felt banners and tinker-toys instead of true Catholic doctrine, and the generalized abdication to every temptation of the flesh in so many ways. What are the results? Parishes shrinking, parishes closing, the well of vocations drying up, youth loosing their innocence in the flowering of life, families falling apart. I hate to be the one to say it, but I have never been a man, nor will I ever be, that cowers or makes decisions based on the disapproval of others, so let me say it: We have grafted ourselves into the vine of sin, not the vine of Christ, and so we no longer bear fruits. The only hope the Archdiocese and the Catholic Church in America has is to fall on its knees, to renounce abortion, liturgical abuse, pop music in the Churches; to renounce homosexuality, pornography, fornication before marriage and contraception; to renounce, relativism and the general resentment of objective truth. In a word, we must finally learn the meaning of Christ’s first words of his public ministry, “Do penance, and believe the Gospel!” For no one but Jesus will make us fruitful. Jesus, the Son of God made Man, also asserts, “By this is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and become my disciples.” So go, bear much fruit. The world is dying for lack of knowledge of Christ, for lack of love of him, for lack of faith and hope. Go forth, bear much fruit. But then the question, what kind of fruit? There is a fruit which is personal and interior, and another which is social and exterior; these are not two fruits, but two ways of looking at the same fruit. S. Paul says, “The fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth,” (Eph 5:9). “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). No other exterior or social fruit can be found without this personal and interior life of the Spirit by grace. This is why Jesus say, “bear fruit, and be my disciple.” The external manifestation of this fruit is clear from the first place in the bible where “fruit” is referred to, the book of Genesis. There is Fruit in Eden (1:11, 1:22), which comes from plants, and from animals. But then God said to Man, male and female, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). It isn’t something that just “happens,” it is something freely done, a mystery of procreation in which man, male and female, freely participates in God’s creation of the human person. And so we find ourselves again thinking of Mother’s day in a more exalted way, a profoundly theological way; indeed, there is a mystery to motherhood – and, men, to Fatherhood! – which the human mind will never completely understand. Israel’s fruitlessness is used symbolically to designate evidence of a rotten root. “Ephraim is blighted,” Hosea says (9:16), “their root is withered, they yield no fruit.” And Jesus reminds us, “By their fruit, you will recognize them” (Mt 7:16 and 20). So it is that there is the first type of fruit, a special blessing which God in his loving Providence, awards to some, that is, to be mother and father. Then there is a spiritual type of fruit, and it is that of multiplying the believers, of winning over our neighbor to the truth of the Trinity, of Jesus Christ, and of the one Church he established. Jesus wants us to bear this kind of fruit, that is way, at the Ascension, he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Let us therefore examine ourselves as individuals first, and only afterwards as a group of people, and see what fruits have we born. Are our fruits strife, sin, discord, disobedience, gossip, impurity, greed and laziness? Or are our fruits those of the spirit? How many people did I bring into the Church last year? How many vocations have I helped enter the seminary or religious life in the last year, or five years? It is God’s will that you bear much fruit. To bear fruit on the outside, focus not on the outside but on the interior, and in the interior life of grace and virtue you will find the light you need, the illumination and inspiration of God necessary, to know what to do to bear fruit on the outside, and you’ll have the strength, peace, joy and wisdom to carry through with what you know to be true. Stay united to the vine, and you will bear great fruit, I promise! Jesus promises! Mary promises; see what great fruit our Mother bore, first Christ, then the whole Church. Amen. I include this article, as it goes much to the same point.
On the Vine and Branches |