In scripture, we read that there will be trials and tribulations, that there will be wars and
rumors of wars. And often this refers to the assaults of the world on the people of God. And so our Lord spoke this parable in today's gospel in order that we may be strengthened. And indeed, we can begin to unravel the mystery if we first try to clarify a sort of an ambiguous translation. For in today's gospel, we read, I am the true vine. While it is an authentic translation, it does not quite this quite catch the sense
the emphatic sense by which our Lord delivers this. For one of the most ancient texts of scripture in the Syriac language would be literally translated, I am the vine of truth, which is a much more definitive statement. And indeed, it is a statement by which our Lord wishes to communicate to us that he is true God and true man. And indeed, the whole parable of the true vine illustrates this point to us. And why does our Lord deliver this parable to the
apostles? He does so in order to strengthen them. For we see very clearly in today's first reading that the apostles had a sort of fear. But in today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostle, it is not the same fear that the apostles experienced after the death of our Lord. For now they are exercising a more prudent fear because they have truly come to understand the mystery of this parable spoken to them. And so in prudence, they need not have trusted Paul until he had
proven himself. St. Bonobus, stepping out in faith, knowing Paul better than the other apostles, brought him to them in order that they may prove his true faith. And so our Lord in today's gospel is instructing the apostles to remain steadfast in his faith, in his hope, in his charity. Indeed, he tells them that when they have heard his word, they have been pruned. And so each and every one of us as members of the mystical body of Christ,
when we hear the true word of God, that is the teachings of Christ, we have been pruned. That is, we have been told the restrictions that we are supposed to keep both our passions and our intellect within. That is, the bounds and parameters set by God by his divine teaching. And so he tells them this because it is right before his impending passion and death. And so he wishes to strengthen the apostles so that they come to understand those truths and
those mysteries that they could not fully quite grasp, and most especially a most profound mystery, that because he took to himself a human nature, he can truly be called a vine, and that we might be grafted onto him as branches to the vine. And so we have a most profound analogy and a most profound mystery. For the vine branches are the faithful and holy people of God. That is, the whole of humanity called to be grafted on to the
one vine. And Christ could not have been the vine unless he assumed flesh. Yet the flesh of Christ would not have had the power of producing branches unless the Godhead were united to it. And so our Lord is teaching us the very basis of our faith. For he is here, he is speaking of the mystery of the hypostatic union, by which we declare that in the second person of the blessed Trinity, there is united two natures in one person.
That our Lord is true God and true man, and yet without any admixture to God. God does not change when Christ assumes the flesh. It is one of the most profound mysteries of our faith. And so our Lord chooses the vine because of all those fruit-bearing plants. It is the most durable of all the wood. Indeed, it can last for many centuries, and it is the most abundant according to size in its production of fruit.
But it needs to be pruned back, and then it begins to thrive. And so our Lord wishes to teach us a most important mystery, especially in our day and age, that when the vine of Christ is pruned back, it begins to thrive, because it is God who is doing the pruning.
And if God wishes, as it were, to separate some branches, it is because they are not bearing fruit in his mystical body. That is, they have abandoned the teachings of Christ.
As he instructs the apostles not to do, that is, remain in me, and if we remain in him, he will remain in us. That is, his truth will live in us.
But he also teaches us a most profound mystery, because the vine needs assiduous tending. It needs to be strictly cultured. It is necessary to dig, to plant, to drain, to manure, and to prune, all of which happened to Christ even prior to his incarnation.
For was not Christ dug in the patriarchs and prophets of old, beginning with Abel, who was stabbed by his brother Cain untold number of times, in order, as it were, to begin the persecution of Christ?
And did not our Lord tell the Pharisees and scribes that what they did to the prophets they would do to him?
And so Christ begins his passion in the patriarchs and the prophets of old, in order that we may look forward to his passion to come, for it will deliver us.
And so the vine is truly being pruned, being dug, even before it is planted in human family, and that planting will take place at the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel, in which Christ would become man.
And so he would be nurtured, or, as the scripture tells us, manured, that is, fertilized, by the tender care of the most blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph in that holy home at Nazareth.
And he would be prepared in order to endure that final pruning that he would undergo in his passion in death.
And so it was, when the vine seemed to be most dead, it was most alive.
When it seemed to be most dead, it would bear the most fruit, for it is more fruitful in the planting than in the promise.
And the whole of the Old Testament was about the promise of the planting to come.
With the incarnation, the vine of truth is truly planted.
And so, in all trials and in all tribulations, our Lord wishes to instruct us that faith is the answer.
Not any faith, but his faith, divine faith, the faith that he taught the apostles and the faith that they will teach humanity until the end of time.
And so, we need not fear wars and rumors of wars.
We need not fear the persecution that comes upon the church.
For it is, in one sense, a divine promise.
We need not fear the pruning in which the branches that are not bearing fruit are pruned in order that the vine may again begin to thrive.
And so, if the Lord wishes to do the pruning, we are not to stop him.
We are simply to try to endure what seems to be the death of the church as the apostles would come to endure it after they were strengthened.
After they had overcome that false fear by which they truly were afraid of their persecutors.
Then, as it were, when they no longer had faith, they would not fear the persecution.
Not a false fear, but a very prudent fear, they would begin immediately to graft onto the vine all the branches, and, indeed, that is one of the characteristics of the grape vine.
It may receive many species of grapes, and so it is a vine that all humanity is called to be united to, for Paul was not Peter, and Peter was not James, and James was not John, and Mary Magdalene was not the Blessed Virgin Mary, nor the wife of Salome.
They were all unique in a certain sense, different species, with different gifts, different, as it were, grapes to bear on the vine of Christ, and all of them would be united to the truth.
And so, in times of trials and tribulations, in times when it appears the mystical body of Christ is not fulfilling her mission, it is merely the dormant state of the vine, in which the pruning is taking place in order that more vigorous fruit,
and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit, and a greater fruit.
A greater manifestation of Christ in his works may be manifested to mankind, so that all of us may again begin to worship and adore our one true God.
And so it is, we have this complete confidence, this confidence that Christ is trying to instill in the apostles, because our Lord is always true to his promise.
And he tells us that if we remain in him, that is, if we hold on to the one true Catholic faith,
and perform the works that that faith demands of us, we need not fear if the vine seems to be dormant.
For one day it will burst forth, sending more fruit, sending more branches, more shoots forth, and eventually it will shade the whole world.
For that is one of the unique characteristics of the vine.
Amongst all those growing plants, in proportion, it is the most extensive.
For its vine can produce shoots and overshadow a whole field.
If it is tended properly, and so we must tend it properly by putting into practice that faith that we have received,
so that the leaves of the grapevine may again overshadow humanity with the mercy of Almighty God.
And so that the lifeblood of grace may again flow into the world and into the society,
and that Christ and the love of his sacred heart may again cover the malice of mankind,
and so that all of us may come to know that our Lord truly lives.
He is faithful to his promise, and he has come in this life in order to deliver us from the snares and the wiles of Satan.
And so, while it appears that there may be many enemies of Christ, if we do our work, they too can be grafted onto the vine.
And so our Lord wishes to instruct us very clearly that what is transpiring here in his humanity is also a divine operation.
For human humanity alone cannot give life.
Only God can do that, and so God is instructing us here that in the sacred humanity of Christ we receive our life,
and that is why the Eucharist is the most important and most special of the mysteries of God in this life.
For in it we receive truly the vine of truth, and then his truth abides in us.
And when his truth abides in us, we are able to go forth and give that life to others
because the vine is most fruitful in work.
And so, let us remain confident that Christ is always faithful to his promise, and we need not fear.
If we fall into sin, then Christ has established a means of his mercy, that is the sacrament of confession.
He has established a means by which every aspect of human life can be sanctified.
The family, the single life, all of it.
The religious life, the priestly life, the consecrated life, everything.
Receives its life.
Receives its life from the vine to the sacramental life of the church.
And that is what our Lord wishes to instruct the apostles on this day.
They need not fear, for when he is buried in the earth, it is merely the preparation,
the planting, as it were, for the vine of Christ to be planted and then bear much fruit until the end of time.
And so, let us truly be thankful that our Lord has come and has clearly proven himself to us
by the very fact that he is the one who has given us this life.
By the very fact that his body, the church, remains this day, and it goes forward as it will go forward until the end of time,
conquering all souls for the kingdom of his Father, which all humanity was created in order to enjoy for all eternity.
And so, let us always remember that the divine purpose for which we, as rational creatures, were created
was to worship God for all eternity in heaven.
And we can only lose that.
And we can only lose that if we abandon that one true faith that is our strength,
because it is our hope, and when we have true hope, that is belief,
that we were not created for happiness in this life, but in the life to come,
then we are inspired to exercise charity.
That charity that was exercised most especially by our Lord in his most holy mother at the foot of Calvary,
but a charity that is a sacrificial life, that is a willingness,
to give up one's own life for the life of others,
which our Lord first did for us in order that the apostles would come to understand
that they were to do it for others.
And in their doing it for others, we have all been grafted on to the mystical body of Christ.
That is how we know the one true church of Jesus Christ.
Where Peter is, there the vine of Christ is.
Where Peter is, there are all the truths necessary to edify and abid.
build and inspire the human heart.
Where Peter is not,
there is only the wailing and the gnashing of teeth.
And it is Peter who leads us into that wilderness
of the wailing and the gnashing of teeth
in order that we may claim those souls for his kingdom.
And so let us always remember
that the only thing that can be really taken from us in this life
is the life of the body.
But the soul will go on for all eternity.
And if the soul abides in Christ,
then the losing of the life of the body
is merely the freeing of the soul
to enter into that abode for which it was created
and which it truly believes.
At the end of time, it will receive again
that one same body that we were created with
in order that the whole of us,
body and soul, may praise our good God
together for all eternity
and thus attain the purpose
for which the Creator brought us into this world
and which he sent his Son in order to redeem this world.
And so, in times of trial and tribulation,
the true Catholic is both sorrowful and joyful.
Sorrowful because man has rejected the gift of the Father.
Joyful because he knows
that once the pruning has occurred,
the vine will go forth again
and spread its shade over the whole of humanity.
And so, humanity again will take abode
in the sacred heart of Jesus,
in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
and again be put on the track
to enter into the kingdom of God our Father,
that one true God
which we were created to worship for all eternity.
And so, let us not worry about what may come,
but let us take joy in what has come,
our salvation in Christ,
the true Father.
Amen.