FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR B

WHO BELONGS TO CHRIST?

‘There is no salvation outside of the Church.’ This statement is famous, delivered in the third century by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and is not always correctly interpreted.

Many Christians in the past have made the mistake of identifying the Kingdom of God with the ecclesial institution to which they belonged. They flaunted arrogantcertainties, cultivated prejudices against other religions, and called the others impure and far from the truth. In the appalling cases, they also resorted to force to coerce others toconversion and baptism.

‘Church’ and ‘Kingdom of God’ are not identical realities. There are gray areas in the Church that are excluded from the Kingdom of God because sin thrives in them, and there are huge margins beyond the confines of the Church as we see it on earth that can be included in the Kingdom of God, for the Spirit acts there. ‘Practitioner’ is not equivalent to ‘inserted into the Body of Christ.’ ‘Believer’ does not limit himself to religious practices: Mass, sacraments, prayers, devotions, but one who, in imitation of Christ, practices justice, brotherhood, sharing of goods, hospitality, loyalty, sincerity, therejection of violence, forgiveness of enemies, and commitment to peace.

Talk of lines of demarcation between who belongs and who does not belong to Christdoes not apply in the domain of the sacred, but rather the measure of love between people, and the fact that “in all nations, (God) listens to everyone who fears God and does good” (Acts 10:35).

“Wherever love, joy, peace, and forgiveness blossom,

the Spirit of the Risen Lord is present.”

First Reading: Acts 9:26-31

A few years after his conversion, Paul decided to take a trip to Jerusalem. He wanted to meet Peter and know the community he had fiercely persecuted previously. Everyone was aware of his radical change of life. However, there was still a lot of mistrust for him,and before welcoming him, the soundness of his decision had to be verified (v. 26).Barnabas, an eminent discip le and respected by all for his generosity and dedication to the cause of the Gospel, intervened (Acts 4:36-37). He knew Paul well. He was aware of his biblical preparation, and he realized that he could become a great apostle. He took him and introduced him to the community. 

After this first, difficult encounter with the new brothers in the faith of Jerusalem, a bitter conflict with the most fanatic exponents of the Jewish religious institution started. They even set out to kill Paul. They considered him a heretic, a traitor to the faith and traditions of the fathers (vv. 28-30). It was just the beginning of a long series of persecutions that the apostle would have to endure for Christ. The message contained in this episode goes beyond biographical information.

When, for the first time after his conversion, Paul went to Jerusalem, he had already carried out—as he indicates in his letter to the Galatians—an apostolic ministry in the kingdom of the Nabataeans (modern Jordan) and Damascus, where the ethnarch of KingAretas had tried to capture him. He had not proclaimed Christ to the Gentiles on his own initiative. On the road to Damascus, the mission had been entrusted to him by Jesus himself (Gal 1:11-16). Yet, despite having received an extraordinary revelation, he did not presume to act independently of the brethren in the faith. He immediately wanted to establish close relations with the mother community of Jerusalem, headed by Peter.

Paul would have had every reason to follow his own path. Before all others, he had become aware of an important pastoral decision; he realized that the Christian community was in danger of closing herself in a ghetto. She would have to dissolve the moorings that bound her to the Jewish establishment and launch herself into the world. But they were a minority in the church who thought like him, and Peter himself was hesitant. What to do? Was he to set forth on his own, without regard for others?

Through the example of Paul, the author of Acts wants to send a message to those who, even today, are passionately committed to the cause of the Gospel but feel misunderstood by their communities. They face misunderstandings and differences, and perhaps they are tempted to abandon all or isolate themselves. From the beginning of his ministry, Paul sought unity with fellow believers, and no alternative understanding of the direction of the Church on the part of others was able to deter him from pursuing ecclesial communion.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:18-24

Although we strive to live in a manner consistent with our faith, we realize that we remain sinners. John reminds us of this at the beginning of his letter: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8). How can we discern when we are truly united to Christ – when we are the branches where his sap or his Spirit is present, or when we are dead and unproductive branches? 

Jesus is amazed at the faith of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15:28) and the centurion of Capernaum. He exclaims: “I have not found such faith in Israel” (Mt 8:10). Like Cornelius, he finds many kind and generous pagans who “gave generously to the people and constantly prayed to God” (Acts 10:2). This obliged them to ask if the unbaptized pagans who were leading good lives were in some way already united to Christ.

In today’s passage, John answers these questions and suggests the criteria to clarify who truly belongs to Christ. What identifies the disciple of Christ is not the fact of having one’s name written in the records of the parish, but receiving the Spirit that is as free as the wind, and which cannot be monopolized by any institution, nor by the Church, because the Spirit acts in anyone who welcomes him.

There is an unmistakable sign of the Spirit’s presence: the works of love. In the verse immediately preceding our text, John introduces his thinking: “If anyone enjoys the riches of this world, but closes his heart when he sees his brother or sister in need, how will the love of God remain in him?” (v. 17). He concludes: “My dear children, let us love, not only in words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed” (v. 18). The signs of the presence of Christ’s Spirit are not just professions of faith proclaimed in words but concrete actions in favor of people.

One who does not have the Spirit of God cannot produce works of love. If he does such things, it is a sign that he is united to Christ and God. Even if someone does not know Christ, if they love, they can be sure they have divine life in them, because “love comes from God (and) everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:7-8).

The reading continues with one of the most beautiful statements of the whole Bible. If we take account of our lives, we are forced to admit we have made mistakes. We realize that we have been conditioned by faults and habits that we have not overcome. That leads us to think even God refuses and condemns us, just as our heart does.

John’s reply is comforting: if we commit ourselves to the practical love of serving the brethren, we no longer need to fear our miseries, fragilities, or even the severe judgment pronounced by our heart; or anything that seeks to condemn us, because we are assured“God is greater than our conscience” (v. 20).

The most diabolical of temptations is what leads us to believe God is smaller than our hearts. A mother is willing to forgive her son's mistake, even if he does not repent of the evil he has done. Yet this same mother may be convinced that God, being just, will one day send her son to hell. The one who accepts such a thought is judging God’s love as smaller than hers.

Gospel: John 15:1-8

The Bible mentions the Promised Land as the land where ‘milk and honey flow’ and where vines and olive trees grow (Jos 24:13). Every Jewish family cultivated, near the family home, a vine that provided shade during the long summer (1 Kgs 5:5) and precious grapes, which in part were either dried to make raisins or were pressed to get good, strong wine.

The vine and the vineyard are potent symbols in the Bible, always associated with spontaneous joy and celebration. They are an expression of God’s blessings. Even Jesus, who grew up amid the farming communities of Palestine, used such images in his parables and allegories.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins with the solemn affirmation, “I am the true vine” (v. 1). To grasp the meaning and accept the challenge in this sentence, it is necessary to note that the vineyard of the Lord, sung by the prophets, was Israel. She was a vine that had produced abundant fruits of faithfulness, even when she was “like wild grapes in the desert” (Hos 9:10); she had responded to the kindness of God who said through Isaiah: “Praise to my fruitful vineyard. I, Yahweh, am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will harm it, day and night I guard it. I have no wall, who will cleanse me from thorns? I myself will march against them; I will burn them all together” (Is 27:2-5).

The symbol of Israel—the vineyard of the Lord—in the temple of Jerusalem was depicted by a golden vine that covered the walls of the vestibule, which kept growing more and more, thanks to the vines, grapes, and golden vine-leaves offered by pilgrims.

The vine-Israel had been planted in the fertile soil of a hill, but it disappointed God,and it began to produce sour grapes (Is 5:1-4). The Lord complained: “I planted you a choice vine, a shoot of wholesome stock; why have you become degenerate, a wild vine?”(Jer 2:21) He made a painful but necessary decision: “I will remove its hedge, and it will be burned; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled on. I will make it a wasteland, I will neither prune nor hoe it and briers and thorns will grow there. I command the clouds, as well, not to send rain on it” (Is 5:5-7).

However, the work that God begins never fails. Israel had behaved like an unfaithful vine, but what did the vintner do, he who “looked for justice, but found bloodshed; (who)looked for righteousness, but heard cries of distress” (Is 5:7)? Despite her infidelity, he did not repudiate her because “the call of God and his gifts cannot be nullified” (Rom 11:29). From this vine's old and withering stump, a new, genuine shoot, Christ, the true vine, sprouted on the day of Easter.

Jesus is the vine and his disciples, which form the branches, are part of him, and it is from them that the Lord expects delicious fruits: justice, righteousness, love; for this, he acts as gardener and vinedresser: he breaks off and prunes them (vv. 2-3).

The two actions were carried out by the farmers in different seasons of the year. The first was during winter and consisted of the removal of unnecessary branches, the second, done in August, was intended to remove the weakest shoots to foster the best.

The most obvious interpretation of these images may lead to sadness. They seem, in fact, a severe threat to the dead and unproductive branches, which could indicate the Christians who become lukewarm or inconsistent in their faith. It appears their end would be the fire: “Whoever does not remain in me is thrown away, as they do with branches, and they wither. Then they are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned” (v. 6). It is a misleading interpretation and inconsistent with God’s special love for the weak.

To prune and trim are not images of rejection but God’s care for every person and disciple. Being inserted in Christ by the direct action of the Spirit, as is the case for those people who have not been baptized, or rebirth ‘by water and the Spirit’ in the case of the baptized Christians—does not put one in the position of automatically producing fruits. The dead branches are not less edifying individuals, but the miseries, the infidelities to the Gospel, weaknesses, small and great sins present even in the best of disciples. No one is immune; all have a constant need for purification.

The Manichean separation between good and evil, between those who feel fine because they belong to the institutional church and those who are outside, is a form of spiritual arrogance and hypocrisy. Anyone who sees dead branches only in others, who thinks that only others are in urgent need of pruning; or even wants to exclude them from the community or declares them outcasts from God, is no more than an opinionated person seeing the mote in his brothers’ eye and not recognizing the beam in his own eye(Mt 7:4).

Discouragement in the face of human miseries in the Church can be a sign of misunderstanding God’s purifying work. The disappointments caused by the sins of those who profess to be Christians can lead some believers to the difficult decision to abandon the community. It is an understandable choice, but nevertheless wrong. Those who do not understand or have compassion for brothers and sisters who make mistakes and instead reject them are removing themselves from the Vine; Jesus touched the lepers (Mk 1:41)and was “the friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Mt 11:19).

“You are already made clean by the word I have spoken to you” (v. 3). This is not a declaration of innocence among the disciples but an indication of the Father's instrument to prune.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples: “Not all of you are clean” (Jn 13:11). He was referring to Judas. Judas represents those who, having committed to Christ, cultivate plans in opposition to his. They seek power instead of service; they search for the first place instead of the last. Judas is the image of one who does not allow the Father to intervene in his life, who does not wish to have the mind and heart ‘cleansed’ by the Word of God, and who therefore runs the risk of perishing.

The comparison of the disciple with the person of Jesus and his word implies continuous, necessary pruning. This Word “is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces, to the division of soul and spirit, joints, and marrow, and judges the intentions and thoughts of the heart” (Heb 4:12). No dark or secret corner of the heart escapes his light; there is no shadow of death that it does not dissolve. This light identifies the branches that should be removed and the useless leaves that take up space and obstruct the sun’s rays from reaching the productive branches. It shows just how fleeting the outward manifestations of piety do not correspond to a genuine commitment to Christ.

While it entails a painful process being carried out by the Father, this cleansing is always a cause of joy; God’s hands cure the wounds he has inflicted (Job 5:17). “What you endure is to correct you”—says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews— “that you suffer! God treats you like sons and what son is not corrected by his father?” (Heb12:7-8).

The sometimes harsh and bitter criticisms directed at the Church cannot be dismissed too easily as hateful expressions of prejudiced people who do not love Christ and are not deserving of consideration. Instead, they can be viewed as invitations to live our lives more in keeping with the faith we profess; it can constitute a healthy, although painful pruning.

For whose benefit are the fruits produced? To the glory of the Father—the last verse of the passage answers (v. 8). God does not expect applause and praise. His glory is the manifestation and the outpouring of his love for humanity. Given this work, the disciples are associated with Christ in perfect unity because with him, they are one vine.

The vine does not produce grapes for itself but for others. The branch finds its fulfillment when it creates the buds, flowers, leaves and sweet grapes. The Christian does not produce works of love for himself, for self-satisfaction in his moral perfection, or receive a prize from God. He is like the Father who, in heaven, loves without expecting anything in return. His reward is the joy of seeing someone happy, verifying that the love of God was manifested through him. Nothing more, nothing less. For every disciple, this is the joy of life in God, and when he reaches it in all its fullness, that will be the Kingdom of God.