easter The Sánchez Archives

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Inextricable Bonds

ACTS 9:26-31
1 JOHN 3:18-24
JOHN 15:1-8

Last week the gathered assembly was invited to reflect on its oneness with Christ and its universal character by considering both architectural (stone, cornerstone) and pastoral imagery (one flock, one shepherd). This week, with imagery drawn from agrarian life (vine, branches) believers are challenged to consider even more deeply the mystery of their union with and in Jesus Christ.

A familiar and striking image, drawn directly from the terraced hills of Israel and Judah, the vine was a motif popular among the Hebrew prophets for describing the relationship between God and Israel. Isaiah (5:1-7) sang a song of a loving vinedresser, tenderly doting on a vineyard that yielded only bitter grapes, as an analogy for the constant care of God for an often ungrateful and faithless people. Jeremiah (5:10; 12:10) warned that God would punish the vine of Judah for its corrupt cult and barren faith. Ezekiel also told a parable of a useless vine, good only for burning, in order to shake his contemporaries from their spiritual torpor (Ezekiel 15:1-8; 17:5-10; 19:10-14). In Psalm 80, the entire community of Israel is invited to a prayerful review of their history as a people in terms of the figure of the vine.

Carried over into the Christian scriptures, vineyards and vinedressers were the subject of some of Jesus’ parables (Matthew 20:1-16; 21:28-32; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19); therein he appealed to his contemporaries to understand the vine as a symbol of the new Israel or kingdom of God which he had come to establish.

As R. H. Barry (“Vine”, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C.: 1981) has noted, it is only in the fourth gospel that the image of the vine is developed to its fullest Christological dimensions (see today’s gospel). No longer a symbol for Israel, the vine is identified with Christ himself and all who believe in him are the branches of this vine. Organically bound to Christ upon whom they depend for life, believers or branches share in Christ’s life, mission, and union with God.

While this imagery is certainly a source of grace and strength, there is another aspect of the vine and branches imagery which warrants some attention. Anyone who has seen a grapevine will readily understand the deeper implications of this symbol. Just as the branches are woven round the vine which is the source of their life, so also are the branches inextricably wound round one another. As the vine grows, its young green tendrils grasp at and cling to other branches for support. Gradually these tendrils grow into a permanently intertwined living mesh of fruitfulness. So, what is the message here for believers of Jesus?

We may pick and choose those with whom we want to share a friendship. We may decide what neighborhood we wish to live in and therefore who will be our neighbors. We may opt for whatever social club or organization we wish to belong. We may even choose the sort of people and atmosphere in which we will seek education or employment. However, as members of Christ and branches bound to the one vine, we are not free to choose or to discriminate against other branches or believers who are also bound to Christ. Perhaps it is this aspect of the vine and branches imagery which remains the greatest challenge for believers; to maintain the unity of the community while respecting diversity is no easy task.

Something of the difficult nature of this task is evidenced in today’s first reading from Acts. Paul’s conversion to Christ dramatically changed his life but the disciples initially refused to believe that he was an authentic branch, bound inextricably to them, and with them, to Christ. For a time, they even sent him back to Tarsus. Only gradually and not without conflict was the former persecutor accepted as a proclaimer of the good news. Paul’s experience compels us to look around at everyone we meet today and to recognize in each face someone with whom we are bound for life, like branches to a vine.

With gentle and kindly wisdom, the author of 1 John (second reading) advises us that such recognition and acceptance become possible only if believers “love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it!”

ACTS 9:26-31

Damascus was a turning point in Saul’s life. After his experience of Jesus as risen, his values and ideology changed, as did his career and life-style. From Damascus onward, Saul the persecutor became Paul the believer in Jesus and apostle to the gentiles in Jesus’ name. His former vehemence against the church paled before his newfound loyalty and commitment to the gospel.

After Damascus, Paul realized that the crucifixion was not the end of a troublemaker but only the beginning of a new chapter in the unfolding saga of salvation. As Joseph Plevnik (What Are They Saying About Paul?, Paulist Press, New York: 1986) has explained, Paul understood for the first time that the death of Jesus was not a sign of God’s displeasure toward the crucified one, but rather the unfathomable act of God’s love in giving up the Son as well as the self-giving love of Jesus (Romans 5:6-10; 8:31-32; Galatians 2:20). Paul also recognized that the new order of salvation was open to all and that the fullness of time had come, replacing the former age and its law (Galatians 4:4). Above all, Paul understood that all God’s saving activities in Jesus were to be accepted in faith as a gift freely given by a gracious God to sinners (Romans 5).

In his later correspondence with those whom he brought to a similar turning point in their own lives, Paul would enunciate in painstaking detail the insights of Damascus. Initially, however, Paul’s conversion was held suspect by the disciples in Jerusalem. Fearful at what they probably believed to be a trick, the disciples had yet to comprehend that the power of God could so transform an individual.

Although, Paul recounts this incident differently (Galatians 1-2), Luke tells his readers that Barnabas acted as Paul’s mediator by introducing him to the apostles and explaining the circumstances of his Damascus experience. Later, Paul and Barnabas would be paired and mandated for missionary service by the Christian community in Antioch (Acts 11:29-30).

By means of the summary statement in verse 31, Luke offers the assurance that despite the flap caused by Paul’s dramatic conversion the church was at peace. Some have suggested that the peace (eirene in Greek) was restored because Paul had been removed from the scene, but throughout Acts, and indeed throughout the history of the church, peace did not hinge upon the presence or absence of any one person. Peace was one of the consequences of the good news of salvation (Luke 1:79; 2:14, 29; 7:50; 8:48; 10:5-6; 12:51; 19:38, 42; 24:36; Acts 7:26; 10:36).

Despite their differences, the community of believers was growing and evolving as church. “Being built up,” (oikodomeo in Greek), referred to the ongoing process of identity realization and stabilization. As always, Luke credits the development of the church to the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit, whose power overshadows human parochialism and sublimates human prejudice.

1 JOHN 3:18-24

“If you are going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk”. . . so goes a popular “rap”, and while it lacks the eloquence with which the author of 1 John challenges his readers today, its message is similar. Underscoring the perennial discrepancy between human speech (the talk) and behavior (the walk), the ancient Christian writer urges believers to “love in deed and truth and not merely talk about it” (v. 18). This exhortation remains apropos for believers of all ages and in every era of human history, but in the Johannine community it was prompted by a particular situation.

Recall the fact that the heirs of the Johannine gospel were in disagreement as to its interpretation. Some, who were the adherents of the epistolary author, accepted the gospel and its challenges, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh; having died for our sins he rose from death to glory. Those baptized into Jesus’ dying and rising are to live a life of moral integrity, obedient to the commandments and devoted to loving and serving one another in truth.

Others, whom the author called adversaries, wished to secede from the Johannine community. These secessionists denigrated the importance of Jesus and the essential nature of the incarnation; they valued knowledge of God but did not agree with the ethical claims of the gospel. Claiming to love God, they overlooked the necessity of loving their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Raymond E. Brown (“The Epistles of John”, The Anchor Bible, Vol. 30, Doubleday & Co., Inc., New York: 1982) believes that today’s reading represents yet another appeal made by the author of 1 John to the secessionists. Through his appeal for an authentic consonance in word and work, he continued to teach his adherents (and us) of the importance of integrity in the faith. As Brown understands them, the secessionists weren’t hypocrites; they did not preach one course of action and follow another. But they appeared to teach “that actions or deeds were not salvifically important since one already possessed eternal life through faith in Christ. That is the position the author is attacking when he insists that love must manifest itself in deeds. Love, truth and light are all ways of describing what has been revealed in Jesus Christ and been appropriated through faith by those who have become children of God.” For this reason, those who belong to Christ, who know and believe in him, must reflect in their lives, that same love, truth and light.

To speak of love, to think of love, is not enough. 1 John would have his readers remember that love is more than the sentimental pap of a greeting card. To understand the implications and ramifications of love, the ancient author reminds his readers that love is keeping the commandments and doing what is pleasing to God (v. 22).

Only then, may believers dare to be sure that God is with them and that God will grant whatever they ask (v. 21). Whereas the Roman lectionary translates the Greek parrhesia as sure, the REV and NAB render it as confidence and the NRSV offers the even better term, boldness. The boldness of the believer before God arises from the relationship which God has extended to him/her, viz., to become God’s own beloved child. Like children secure in the love of their parents, never doubting that even the most difficult requests will be met, so shall be those who love, in deed and truth, before God.

JOHN 15:1-8

Whereas the epistolary author of 1 John (second reading) called upon his readers to translate the loving relationship they shared with God into deeds, the Johannine Jesus, who was his inspiration, counseled his disciples that their union with him, as branches on a vine, must issue forth in abundant fruit. Never a relationship to be enjoyed privately or exclusively, the abiding of the believer in Jesus must necessarily overflow in commitment. However, when the Johannine evangelist described this commitment in terms of bearing fruit, he was not simply referring to good works and a virtuous life. As Raymond E. Brown (“The Gospel According to John,” The Anchor Bible, Vol. 29A, Doubleday and Co. Inc., New York: 1970) has explained, “for John, love and keeping the commandments are so much a part of the life coming from faith that one who does not behave in a virtuous manner does not have life at all. Life is committed life.” Consequently, a branch which does not bear fruit (i.e. a believer who does not love and keep the commandments) is already dead. Barren, dead branches are good for nothing but fuel for the fire. Believers who do not love or keep the commandments are like so much dead wood.

While this interpretation is admittedly harsh, it is in keeping with the continuing challenge of the fourth gospel, viz. to confront the crisis situation posed by the presence of Jesus and to choose rightly. To choose Jesus is to choose life and light; not to choose Jesus is to choose death and darkness. As it is expressed in today’s gospel, “He who lives in me and I in him will produce abundantly, for apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5). It appears to be a matter of all or nothing at all and everything hinges upon the life of the believer in Christ, and Christ in the life of the believer.

Just as even the most fruitful branches on a vine are drastically pruned by the vinedresser in order to increase their fruitfulness (v. 2) so also will believers be trimmed clean. The references to being trimmed (v. 2) and being clean already (v. 3) should be understood in terms of Jesus’ dialog with Peter during the washing of feet (John 13:8, 10). Jesus had washed his disciples’ feet, an action that foreshadowed the “washing” they would experience through his death on the cross and in which they would participate through the “washing” of Christian baptism. In John 15, the Johannine Jesus assures his disciples that they are also cleansed or washed by means of the word he spoke to them. Cleansed by baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus, believers continue to be cleansed and pruned by their attentiveness to the daily challenge of his word.

In order for this process of cleansing and pruning to continue to keep his disciples fruitful, Jesus left with his own the gift of the Paraclete. To this day, the Holy spirit remains with the Christian community trimming and pruning, teaching us everything, reminding us of all the words that Jesus spoke, enabling us to love him and to keep his words (John 14:24, 26).

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