Grafted Onto Him

5th Sunday of Easter

At Mass today, Friar Mike talked about trees in his homily, in relation to today's Gospel reading (John 15:1-8). He spoke about how, when graft a branch of a tree (e.g. crab apple) to a different tree but of the same genus (e.g. apple), the former would grow and bear fruit, eventually becoming one with the tree. He also spoke about how one tree could bear many different types of fruit, if similar grafting took place – as with this multi-citrus plant:

In the Gospel, Jesus refers to himself as “the true vine” and us as “the branches” that must “abide in the vine” – that is, in baptism, we are ‘grafted’ onto him, and we must be united with Jesus if we are to “bear fruit”. Our heavenly Father, the “gardener”, will throw out branches that do not bear fruit and prune those that bear fruit so that they will bear more fruit.

This is also echoed in the first reading (Acts 9:26-31), which talks about Saul, who previously was persecuting those in the faith, until he changed his life, thanks to being transformed by God. Saul – St Paul – chose to be united with God, allowing God to influence his life and becoming a key “branch” from which the branches of the Church would spread far and wide.

So how do we, like St Paul, remain ‘grafted’ to Jesus? The answer lies in the second reading from 1 John: “Whoever keeps His commandments lives in God, and God lives in him” (verse 24). When we live the life God wants us to live through prayer, obedience to his commandments and discipleship, we open our hearts for God to come in and use us as His “branches” to spread the faith.