“I am the Vine, You are the branches…”
When I was on my seminary pastoral year , between 2nd and 3rd year of Theology at St. Patrick’s Seminary, I was assigned to a peninsula parish where due to a misunderstanding between pastor and principal, I was initially assigned to teach the fifth grade. This was before the famous television show “Are You Smarter than a Fifth- Grader”. However, in dutifully accepting this assignment within 48 hours of my arrival in the parish, I was reflecting that I was definitely NOT smarter than a fifth grader in all areas. I felt comfortable in Mathematics, English, Spelling, History, Geography and definitely , religion, after my seminary training. But I was terrified of Science- never my strongest subject. So I asked the pastor and the principal if I could have some help in this area and they both readily agreed, as school was set to commence in two days. During the first week, I expected the designated teacher to appear in the doorway at the scheduled time of Science- this never happened despite my requests to the principal. In my first lesson, I tried to use the analogy of a tree as similar to the human blood system. I explained that the human body’s blood system has the heart as the motor of sorts; the arteries as the freeways of blood similar to the big branches of a tree; the smaller, but no less important blood vessels carrying blood to keep our tissues alive from the arteries and on to the smallest of blood veins, the capillaries. All the while, I used the image of a tree.
As I was preparing to compose this commentary, this image kept coming to mind. I then reflecting that Jesus who we hope to keep at the core of our life is the vine who has somehow grown into a tree that is the Church for all time and for all places. Indeed, we are the branches and maybe some of us new to the faith or weaker in faith are only capillaries, yet we still have the faith of Christ within us. This life is coursing through our veins and is giving us life and direction. Some of us lead others to Christ as branches give life to new branches and sprigs of leaves. Jesus wants us to know and appreciate that the source of life is from God. That is why he says that he and the Father are one and that he is the vine and that we are the branches. We are called to accept life from God and to help promote life in others. The tree analogy works here. As the infant Church was beginning, the image of vine was appropriate as the few believers/disciples were called to join Christ in His mission to save the world. That mission seems impossible to any one of us, but it is possible if we all try and accept the gifts of life, love, and truth from Jesus and try to pass on these gift to others. Jesus is the tree represented in His Church, the one composed of all people who believe; not a building but real live people! As people, we are alive in our faith and we hope to share this with others.
When parents teach their young about God; when families come
to Mass to celebrate together the Eucharist; when we praise God
through prayer and song we give life to our faith and to others.
Let us resolve to accept God’s gift as life-giving and appreciate
our relationship with our loving God.
Fr. Mike
