Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.
The fifteenth chapter of John is one of my favorites in all of Scripture. Especially the passage that we read as the Gospel today. I remember one of the first times I tried to pray with it, I was left rather discouraged. I was struggling with that ever present lie that I'm not enough, and so these words felt like a rebuke and a condemnation. I wasn't bearing enough fruit and so Jesus was going to cut me off, cast me aside so that I would wither and die.
But I know God better than that. If the voice we hear in prayer isn't merciful and loving (yet sometimes stern), then that voice isn't God's. So what was it that Jesus was trying to say?
This, for me, is such a passage of hope.
"Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the fine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
...
without me you can do nothing."
This isn't some kind of power play. This isn't a flaunting of authority. This is an acknowledgement of reality. Truly, as much as we try, we can't bear fruit without God. Sure, we might have a list of things that we think we achieved without God, but honestly we're kidding ourselves. We heard this recently as Governor Cuomo of New York claimed that the progress we've made on flattening the curve of the Coronavirus, "Look God didn't do this, faith didn't do it, we did it" (watch Bishop Barron's response here).
God can act independently. He can intervene into the events of the world, but most often He chooses to work through His children on earth. As His child, He chooses to work through you. You might not even realize it, but any time that you pursue the true, good, and beautiful you are accomplishing the will of God. God does not compete with us, He animates us.
When we remain in Him, as Jesus invites us, then we maximize the fruit that we bear. When we cooperate with Him and especially recognize that it is He that is behind all that we do, then we will remain on the vine. We will bear much fruit. We will be eternally joyful.
"Lord, you will decree peace for us,
for you have accomplished all we have done."
-Isaiah 26:12
Remain in Christ, friends.
-Amanda Nobis, Director of Evangelization