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Fifth Sunday of Easter B
May 6, 2012

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050612.cfm

Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31 (in part)

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him,
not believing that he was a disciple.
Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles...

He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem,
and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.
He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists,
but they tried to kill him...

The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.
It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.

Reading 2 1 Jn 3:18-24 (in part)

Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything...
 

Gospel Jn 15:1-8 (in part)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me...."


+++


There is no end of surprises in the sacred writings. Look at the first reading. Just prior to this selection from the Acts we read of Paul having to escape from Damascus by being let down the wall in a basket at night for fear of the Jews who wanted to kill him. In this episode, when he had come to Jerusalem to report in to the apostles, it is the Greek-speaking christians who want to kill him. And then the narrator tells us that the church was at peace and flourishing:

The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.
It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.

Violence is everywhere.  In the table talk after the supper, in an atmosphere of intimacy and expressions of personal love, John includes a figure of speech in which Jesus declares himself to be the true vine and his disciples the branches - with his Father wielding the pruning sheers with a will, and the branches thrown out to wither and then tossed into the fire to be burned.

"I am the true vine," said Jesus, replacing Israel, the vine brought out of Egypt and cultivated by the Lord, which had merited the severe condemnation of the prophets. "Israel should have born fruit already by the conversion of the Gentiles. But, as the story of the cleansing of the Temple showed (...), Judaism had come to hoard the spiritual treasures of her revealed religion very much as robbers hoard the spoils of their raids. The true vine would bear fruit; that is to say, the Church would and could and must evangelise. The world must come to know that the Son loves the Father, and the Father the world." (1)

But branches which fail to bear this fruit will be pruned by the Father.


+++

What does the pruning mean to us?

By comparison with this picture of the church from the first century, our present crisis seems to be quite 'civilised'. These days we may not be into killing people, but over the centuries the institution has done quite a lot of pruning for itself, cutting off unruly branches. Today from a ground-swell of discontent there is a widely held conviction that it is the leaders who are in need of pruning.

It is no longer easy to ignore this issue, but for the individual to confront it is frightening. We have to find something firm to stand on, some way to have confidence and security in ourselves outside the formal approval of the institution. 

The key, according to the gospel, is to 'remain in Jesus', but how do you do this for sure? Is it enough to remain in the Roman Catholic Church to be 'in Jesus'? Is it enough to say 'I believe - I belong - I am faithful to the heritage of my childhood faith?' John, after describing the thorough pruning that the father does, has Jesus say: 'You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.'

Am I? Which word? Has any word of Jesus pruned or purified me?

I must be personal here. All my life I've wondered about that sentence, but was not troubled over much. Just another incomprehensible bit of scripture. In my later years I have come to understand some of the key words in Jesus' teaching: 
  • metanoia - radical change of the way you see everything;
  • blessed are those who are hungry for  rightness - for truth and justice; 
  • respect and care for your fellow human being as tenaciously and as generously as you look after yourself.
  • "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (Jn 18:37)

These, among others, I consider are pruning and purifying words, and they have become central to my being. In taking on these core values I think I do remain in Jesus.

But can I be sure? There is security in the church for anyone who accepts it, but if I choose to put questions to the church and its leaders, is there any way I can know that I have not thrown myself overboard?

Anyone who is critical of authority experiences anxiety, doubt, uneasiness of conscience. By the mere fact of criticising we seem to cut ourselves off from the security that official approval gives. In our protest we are alone and in opposition. We have presumed to judge our superiors, and we cannot expect to be confirmed in our judgement by those same authorities. If they really do speak in god's name then our situation seems very insecure.

Evidently we are not talking about lies, slander or mean attacks of a personal nature. These are clearly crimes against the law and sins against the 8th commandment. Good-natured mockery often directed at leaders, in cartoons and the like, is something else, but immoderate or unfounded attacks which attribute evil intentions beyond any knowledge we may have are surely wrong, and we really should be troubled in conscience if we do this sort of thing.

If, however, the situation has been carefully examined and the criticism is seriously presented, not as an attack but as an exercise in correcting the wayward brother, then it is not wrong - even though it still might keep us awake at night, because we have long been trained to give silent obeisance to our priests, bishops and popes as an act of religion.

This is where we need some reassurance to quieten our conscience.

+++

The reading from John's first letter (2nd Reading - 1 Jn 3:18-24) focuses precisely on this issue. Here is the Jerusalem Bible version. It is one of the few that translates 'heart' as 'conscience', though all agree that this is exactly what 'heart' refers to:

My children
our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active;
only by this can we be certain that we are the children of the truth
and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence,(2)
whatever accusations it may raise against us,
because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.

My dear people,
if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience,
we need not be afraid in God's presence, (3)
and whatever we ask him, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments
and live the kind of life that he wants.

His commandments are these:
that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ
and that we love one another as he told us to.

Whoever keeps his commandments
lives in God and God lives in him.
We know that he lives in us by the Spirit he has given us.

As far as I can see this is a very fundamental teaching by an apostle, though it is not prominent in the teaching of the church as I have known it. 

At a personal level, prior to our understanding of the catechism, prior to the sacramental system, prior to the issue of belonging to the community or not, prior to obedience to the one who occupies the bishop's throne or the chair of Peter, there is a way that we can be certain that we are children of God, a way that will allow us to quieten our troubled consciences when in a sleepless night we see ourselves naked and alone before the sovereign Judge - whatever we perceive with awful insight we may have done - a way that will allow us to reject this self-damning doubt and again grasp, with confidence, the hand of God...

and that is the evidence that our love is not just words or mere talk, but real and active self-giving care for others.

Tony Lawless



(1) Marsh, John, Saint John, Pelican Gospel Commentaries 1968, p. 520.

(2) And shall assure our hearts before him - Before God, or before the Saviour. In the margin, as in the Greek, the word rendered "shall assure," is "persuade." The Greek word is used as meaning to "persuade," e. g., to the reception and belief of truth; then to persuade anyone who has unkind or prejudiced feelings toward us, or to bring over to kind feelings, "to conciliate," and thus to pacify or quiet. The meaning here seems to be, that we shall in this way allay the doubts and trouble of our minds, and produce a state of quiet and peace, to wit, by the evidence that we are of the truth. Our consciences are often restless and troubled in view of past guilt; but, in thus furnishing the evidence of true piety by love to others, we shall pacify an accusing mind, and conciliate our own hearts, and persuade or convince ourselves that we are truly the children of God... In other words, though a person's heart may condemn him as guilty, and though he knows that God sees and condemns the sins of his past life, yet the agitations and alarms of his mind may be calmed down and soothed by evidence that he is a child of God, and that he will not be finally condemned. A true Christian does not attempt to conceal the fact that there is much for which his own heart and conscience might justly accuse him but he finds, notwithstanding all this, evidence that he is a child of God, and he is persuaded that all will be well.  (Albert Barnes, d.1870)

(3)  Sometimes a favourite translation seems to miss the point, as in this case: 'we need not be afraid in God's presence', The New American Bible says straight out: 'we have confidence in God', which I think what the author meant.