V SUNDAY OF EASTER
WHAT FRUIT DO WE BEAR?
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
We are already to the fifth Sunday of Easter and the readings begin to question our response to the central event of our faith: Easter. The Easter season is the perfect time to review our lives as disciples of the light of the resurrected Jesus. Easter: a time of grace to look at our practices, conduct and actions, on the community level, church (parish) level and personal level. What fruit do we bear? Can our Christian love be seen in gestures and concrete actions? And finally, are we glorifying God with our lives full of excitement, hope and mercy?
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles brings up the reception-welcome in the family of faith. To enter into the vital communion, to accept Paul of Tarsus into the family of faith, who not long before persecuted them to the point of death, is not an easy topic. The proclamation of this reading today invites us to a deep reflection about the level of welcome we give in our religious communities, families and parishes and I hope that this is not misunderstood: our welcome as the Christians we are to brothers and sisters from another culture. We should, motivated by the Holy Spirit, create spaces for true communion that accept others in their actual situation. This is only possible in the tone of Easter, a profound change of conversion and acceptance.
Today, as always, it is not easy to accept the new, the surprising and the unusual. That is why Saint John proclaims strongly that true faith translates into an ethical commitment in believers, and that it translates into an authentic living out of the doctrine we are taught. In our world, dominated by images (there are those who believe what they see on TV) it is necessary to translate into visible realities the truth that we profess as believers. The Church asks solemnly that believers be the most convincing witnesses in the middle of the real world: live as brothers and sisters, as a sign that Christ is alive.
That is why the Gospel this Sunday insists that the only way to give true testimony is to be grafted to Christ: “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.” (Jn 15:1-2) We are called to form our lives from Jesus himself. I need to insist over and over, that to be branches of the same vine or members of the same body, is an honor for the branches or for the members. In other words for you and for me who in baptism were grafted into the body of Christ. Both things, the vine and the branches, inseparably united, will transform our understanding of the Church to which we the baptized belong and those of us who hear these words.
If you are facing at this moment a situation of not being accepted, remember to follow Jesus’ advice: humble yourself before God. Accept your cross as you accept being pruned by the Father, with his love as a vine grower, who always does what is best for each one of us. The fruit of our faith needs to be: patience, goodness, generosity, faith, meekness, chastity and “good works” (Ephesians 2:10). “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance,” so your belief in Jesus will stand out. (Matthew 3:8) Glorify God with much fruit and be his faithful disciple. “That will be proof for them.” (Matthew 8:4)
May God give us the grace to be true witnesses of the wonderful love of God. May our actions, on the community level as well as the personal level, demonstrate the love that we have as brothers and sisters. May the love among us become evangelizing and may many brothers and sisters come to embrace our faith. Amen.