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I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

My dear brothers and sisters, we continue in our celebration of the Easter Season. We have not so much journeyed with Jesus as we do in other seasons of the Church year, rather we have sat and listened to His teaching, encountering His Risen presence, and being reassured in what He has won for us. We are having the meaning of all scripture opened to us so we might integrate all we learned as we did journey with Him. In short, Easter is about a deeper learning and integration of that learning into ourselves.

We heard this same gospel of the vine just seven weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Institution. On that occasion we related the meaning of the True Vine and our connection to it corporately as the Church.

Today, we consider our personal union with Jesus. Today is about how we are effectuating Jesus’ life in us in tangible ways, i.e., how we are bearing fruit.

We are given the best of examples of bearing fruit in Acts. Saul has just encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road. This man, who, as Paul, would later write about his life of animosity toward the Body of Christ, and toward Jesus, who lived as an enemy of God in his self-righteousness, now lives washed of all sin. Saul was regenerated and made new in forgiveness and in his desire for unity with Christ’s body. Not only that, but he now lives on fire for evangelization: [He] spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.

We see fruit in Barnabas who brought Saul into the community. He acted as a true brother in kindness and personal witness.

St. John reminds us of our obligation toward love of God and each other. He tells us: And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. He also reveals to us the mark of our salvation, the source of the confidence we should have from living in the True Vine and bearing His fruit, the Spirit he gave us.

Having the Holy Spirit in us and carrying out the work of Jesus in building the kingdom, evangelizing the unbeliever, acting in witness and welcome, we glorify the Father and bear great fruit living what we have learned.