5th Sunday of Easter B - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2021

The news outlets have been keeping us informed about the heart-breaking crisis happening in India at the present moment — people in critical need, and the nation unable to meet those needs. A number of European nations have had their backs on the ropes, including Great Britain— even the United States. I wonder what other countries are also desperate — in Africa, for example.

Covid has confronted us with the reality that we are all in this together, and that what one does or does not do can have devastating consequences for others. I wonder if we are learning the lesson. Many of us would seem to prefer to go into denial. Global warming, waste and pollution confront us with similar problems. But their inevitable effects, though visible enough for those prepared to see, are not so confronting that people cannot continue to keep their eyes closed.

Fear is a great energy source. The trouble is that we eventually get used to living with it, and its effectiveness diminishes with time. Another problem is that fear is usually based on self-interest, and the powerful and wealthy can be tempted to look after themselves, thinking that they can leave others to suffer the consequences.

Is there a better way? Is what Jesus spoke about in today’s Gospel in any way relevant? Jesus used the metaphor of the grapevine to stimulate both our understanding and our motivation. He could have used any number of natural organisms to make a similar point — anything with different parts and different functions that operate smoothly together for the good of the whole and for the one purpose. Vines are a complex of roots, trunk, branches, leaves, bark, etc, all working together naturally with water and sunlight, and sometimes bees and butterflies, to produce their fruit, their grapes.

Jesus said he, as the Christ, was the vine. He was the whole — the living, life-giving, organism. He saw the vine as a microcosm of humanity, and worked from there. We could even go further, and say that Jesus, as creating Christ, is the life source of all that lives in our universe — and, conversely, that everyone who lives shares with everyone else the same life-force of Jesus, the Christ. We all share, in a way, from the same DNA. And this divine DNA, the life-force of Jesus, of God, is love.

Moving on with the metaphor of the vine. Its whole purpose is to produce grapes — which in turn are geared to nourish and to lift our spirits [if we choose to make wine from them and share it together].

Jesus did not say this in relation to the vine, though he said it on numerous other occasions: since we metaphorically share the same DNA, the DNA of God, we constitute the one universal family. We are as sisters and brothers of each other — energised, vitalised by Christ. But to see this and to become convinced of it, we need deliberately to reflect.

How wonderful it would be if we all did learn to see each other as sister or brother, instead of our common default option as rivals, competitors, even threats to each other. It is a much more enlivening motivation for working together than fear or self-interest. I wonder why we almost instinctively hold back from love, mutual respect, compassion, cooperation.

We all might learn something simply from contemplating the vine.