Mothers Day
Jesus really understands our
human nature so very well because He uses so many beautiful imageries to try to
get inside of us. He knows that we as
human beings walk this earth. We need
something tangible to put our arms or hands or our fingers into. So if you are a flower gardener in this
springtime already you’ve gone out and planted your gardens. I know that Father Stillmock has already been
out in our back courtyard and some things are already planted. And Father Brian Johnson is planting
flowers. So I know that there will be a
great bountiful harvest in our courtyard over the summer.
I’m not much of a gardener
myself so I don’t quite understand the whole concept of pruning but you go up
and you look up about it and you read about it.
We understand and we know that things have to be pruned so that dead
wood is cut off when things are not growing and withering so that even
something better will come forth.
So Jesus is trying to get
down into us to say, “What is it inside of you and me that causes us to wither
on the vine”, so to speak? What’s
blocking our growth in Jesus Christ? And
pruning, I’m sure, probably if you’ve ever felt like you’ve been pruned, might
be a little hurtful experience. But I
think about it this way—most of us probably here today would say, “Oh gee whiz,
you know I’m not doing anything terribly bad or wrong in my life. You know I haven’t murdered anybody, haven’t
killed anybody, haven’t stole a whole lot.”
Yet are we growing? Are we
becoming more Christ-like? Or have we
somehow separated ourselves from that vine which is Jesus?
Think about it this
way. Back some time ago, I forget
exactly when he lived, but Aldrich Ames, the spy who betrayed our country and
he gave up so many secrets that not only jeopardized his own family, caused the
death of many other people, at least eleven people, because he gave away
secrets to our country. When asked why
he betrayed his own, why he betrayed his country, Aldrich Ames responded this
way, “I tend to put some of these things in separate boxes and compartmentalize
feelings and thoughts.” He said it
without any remorse. He said it very
calmly. And you and I know in recent
history as well we have many people in our own country again, the Ponzi schemes
that have come forth, the things that the bankers, Madoff out in New York, and
all these people who seem to have just gone blindly on their way bilking other
people out of their money, out of their 401ks and their savings and not thinking
or feeling that they have done anything wrong.
They say greed might have
been the source of it, making more money or profit. But there seems to be something in our
psyche, in our being, in our personality somehow where we can take and separate
my church, my faith life, my work, my professional life, my entertainment, my
family. A lot of people sometimes say,
“Well okay. I come, I pray and I worship
and I sing my heart out and I receive Jesus in the Eucharist but when I go back
home I’m on my own. I can do whatever I
want.” And therein lies the crux of the
problem.
What you and I do and say
here, in these 60 minutes that we gather as the people of God, as the body of
Christ, must also translate, be effective in everything we say and do beyond
these walls. If you and I are different
here now than when we go home, when we go to the restaurant or we go to school
or go to work we’ve missed it. We’ve
betrayed what we are doing right now.
When we try to make separate boxes of my entertainment, my recreation,
my work, my family, my friends, my relatives, whatever it might be and somehow
don’t see that these things are connected we’re in trouble. You see because really you and I are bound to
one another. Theologically we call
ourselves the body of Christ, the church, the mystical body of Christ. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. No doubt about it. When someone’s life is diminished in Dafur
over in Africa you and I are diminished.
When a little infant cannot even feel the breath of life or have life
itself you and I are diminished. When
someone goes hungry in this world you and I go a little bit more hungry as
well. We are bound to one another. We are responsible for and to one
another. There is no way of getting
around it.
And how does that happen
that this takes place? Again the imagery
of Jesus in the gospel. He’s the vine,
you and I are the branches. You could think
of in a term too, commercialism, we’re the branch office. There is the main office, Jesus, and you and
I are the branch offices. We are called
to reflect, to imitate, to model, to take on the values of that main
headquarters who is Jesus. And if
somehow Pat Grile thinks he’s not attached, I can do whatever I want to do
because it’s my life, then I’m in trouble.
You need to look at me and see how I reflect the values of Jesus. Am I compassionate? Am I forgiving? Am I merciful? Am I understanding? If not, hold me accountable, and I will try
to do the same for you. We are in this
thing together.
I think, you know, in that
gospel there is a beautiful word. Jesus
says it eight times in that short gospel, the word remain in me comes up. Remain in me, abide in me. It’s not just what’s left over. Okay Jesus, I’ll give you what’s leftover
because I’ve got all these other things that I am about so what’s leftover I’ll
let you have. Remain in me, abide in
Jesus means that He is the source of our life.
He’s the sap, the energy that is flowing from the main source.
And when we talk about
pruning maybe think about it this way.
What inside me needs to be pruned so that more life can take place? You know it might be an attitude. An attitude of self-righteousness. An attitude of self-pity. And attitude of hurt. It might be my pride, my selfishness. Is that choking off the lifeline of
Jesus. Maybe it’s some stuff, some
things that are more important for me and that chokes off that lifeline of
Jesus. Maybe it’s some person that I am
more attached to rather than to Jesus.
Maybe it’s an action. Maybe it’s
a manner of speech. Challenge yourself
on the words that you and I use to describe somebody else, our vulgarity, our
taking God’s name in vain. Are those
things, those speeches, no mannerisms, are those the things that are choking
off the lifeline of Jesus. That’s
something I am sure that each of us in our own life can challenge ourselves.
St. John said in the second
reading, “Children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in deed and in
truth, remain in Jesus.” So perhaps as
you and I go through out lives this beautiful day to come give thanks. I think first of all that Jesus does abide
with you and me. And use that imagery of
nature, that this lifeline, this sap, this energy is flowing through me,
through my baptism and through our participation in the Eucharist this morning,
through our hearing the word of God, through our love for one another. God’s life is pulsating, flowing through you
and me.
So give thanks to God first
of all that Jesus loves you and me so very much. You can never say thank-you enough. And then sometime in the course of day take
out a little quiet time and ask Jesus, “Okay Jesus, what needs to be pruned in
me? What is it that I need to let go of,
cut off, so that more life, more patience, understanding, mercy, thoughtfulness,
gentleness can grow in me? What will
make me a better person? What will make
me a more loving Christian?”
Follow Jesus seven days a
week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Every breath that you and I take is the breath of God flowing through
us. Let’s not choke it. Let’s not cut it off but may it become even
more so a life-giving energy. God’s
life. God’s love. God’s power.
We’ll never run out of it. Stay
close to the vine, don’t choke it off.