Illustration: Icon of Christ as the True Vine |Source=from Ruwiki |Date=before 20c. |Author=anonimous
Pope Francis previous homilies for 5th Sunday of Easter
Sunday Gospel: John 15:(1-8)
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.
You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Make your home in me, as I make mine in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire, and they are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.’
Pope Francis’ previous homily 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the Gospel of this Fifth Sunday of Easter (Jn 15:1-8 above), the Lord presents himself as the true vine, and speaks of us as the branches that cannot live without being united to Him. And so He says: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v. 5). There is no vine without branches, and vice versa. The branches are not self-sufficient, but depend totally on the vine, which is the source of their existence.
Jesus insists on the verb “to remain”. He repeats it seven times in today’s Gospel reading. Before leaving this world and going to the Father, Jesus wants to reassure His disciples that they can continue to be united with Him. He says, “Remain in me, and I in you” (v. 4). This abiding is not a question of remaining passively, of “slumbering” in the Lord, letting oneself be lulled by life: no, no! It is not this. The abiding in Him, the abiding in Jesus that He proposes to us is abiding actively, and also reciprocally. Why? Because the branches without the vine can do nothing, they need sap to grow and to bear fruit; but the vine, too, needs the branches, since fruit does not grow on the tree trunk. It is a reciprocal need, it is a question of a reciprocal abiding so as to bear fruit. We abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us.
First of all, we need Him. The Lord wants to say to us that before the observance of His commandments, before the beatitudes, before works of mercy, it is necessary to be united to Him, to remain in him. We cannot be good Christians if we do not remain in Jesus. With Him, instead, we can do everything (cf. Phil 4:13). With Him we can do everything.
But even Jesus needs us, like the vine with the branches. Perhaps to say this seems audacious to us, and so we ask ourselves: in what sense does Jesus need us? He needs our witness. Like the branches the fruit we must give is the witness to our lives as Christians. After Jesus ascended to the Father, the task of the disciples – it is our task – is to continue to proclaim the Gospel in words and in deeds. And the disciples – we, Jesus’ disciples – do so by bearing witness to His love: the fruit to be borne is love. Attached to Christ, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in this way we can do good to our neighbour, we can do good to society, to the Church. The tree is known by its fruit. A truly Christian life bears witness to Christ.
And how can we succeed in doing this? Jesus says to us: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (v.7). This too is bold: the certainty that what we ask for will be given to us. The fruitfulness of our life depends on prayer. We can ask to think like Him, to act like Him, to see the world and things with the eyes of Jesus. And in this way, to love our brothers and sisters, starting from the poorest and those who suffer most, like He did, and to love them with His heart and to bring to the world fruits of goodness, fruits of charity, fruits of peace.
Let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. She always remained completely united to Jesus and bore much fruit. May she help us abide in Christ, in his love, in his word, to bear witness to the Risen Lord in the world.
Pope Francis Homily 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Last Sunday the relationship between the believer and Jesus the Good Shepherd was highlighted.
Today the Gospel offers us the moment in which Jesus introduces himself as the true vine and invites us to remain in him so as to bear much fruit. The vine is a plant whose branches form the whole; and the branches are only fruitful insofar as they are joined with the vine. This relationship is the secret of Christian life and John the Evangelist expresses this with the word ‘to remain‘, which is repeated seven times in today’s passage. “remain in me”, says the Lord; remain in the Lord.
It is a question of remaining with the Lord in order to find the courage to step outside of ourselves, out of our comfort zone, out of our narrow and protected spaces, in order to enter the open sea of the needs of others and to give ample space to our Christian witness in the world. This courage to go outside of ourselves and to enter into the needs of others is born from faith in the Risen Lord and the certainty that his Spirit accompanies our history. One of the ripest fruits flowing from communion with Christ is, in fact, the commitment to charity for our neighbour, loving brothers and sisters with self-denial, even to the ultimate consequences, as Jesus loved us. The dynamism of believers’ charity is not the fruit of strategies; it is not born of external stresses, of social or ideological concerns, but rather, it is born of the encounter with Jesus and from remaining in Jesus. He is for us the vine from which we absorb the sap – that is, the ‘life’ – we absorb, in order to bring to society a different way of living and spending ourselves, one that puts the least among us first.
When we are intimate with the Lord, as the vine and branches are intimate and united, we are able to bear the fruits of new life, of mercy, of justice and peace, deriving from the Resurrection of the Lord. This is what the Saints have done, those who have lived the Christian life and the witness of to the full, because they were true branches of the vine of the Lord. But to be saints “it is not necessary to be bishops, priests or religious does not require being a bishop, a priest or a religious”…. […] All of us, all of us, are called to be saints by living with love and offering each one his own witness in his daily occupations, wherever he may be” (Guadete et Exsultate 14). We are all called to be holy; we must be holy with this richness we have received from the Risen Lord. Every activity – work and rest, family and social life, exercising political, cultural and economic responsibilities – every activity, whether small or great, if lived in union with Jesus and with the attitude of love and of service, is an occasion to live Baptism and Gospel holiness to the fullest.
May Mary, Queen of Saints and example of perfect communion with her Divine Son, help us. May she teach us to remain in Jesus, as branches in the vine, and to never distance ourselves from his love. Indeed, we can achieve nothing without him, because our life is the living Christ, present in the Church and in the world.
Pope Francis Homily 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters
Today’s Gospel presents Jesus to us during the Last Supper, at the moment when He knows that death is near. His ‘hour’ has come. For the last time He is with His disciples, and so He wants to impress well on their minds a fundamental truth: even when He is no longer physically in their midst, they can still be united with Him in a new way, and thus bear much fruit. We can all be united to Jesus in a new way. If, on the contrary, one were to lose this union with Him, this communion with Him, he would become sterile, indeed, harmful to the community. And to express this reality, this new way of being united to Him, Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches: Just “as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches” (Jn 15:4-5). With this image He teaches us how to remain in Him, to be united to Him, even though He is not physically present.
Jesus is the vine, and through Him – like the sap in the tree – the very love of God, the Holy Spirit is passed to the branches. Here we are: we are the branches, and through this parable, Jesus wants us to understand the importance of remaining united to Him. The branches are not self-sufficient, but depend totally on the vine, in which the source of their life is found. This is how it is for us Christians. Grafted by Baptism into Christ, we have received from him freely the gift of new life; and we can remain in vital communion with Christ. It is necessary to remain faithful to Baptism, and to grow in friendship with the Lord through prayer, daily prayer, listening to and docility to his Word – reading the Gospel – and participation in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation.
When one is intimately united to Jesus, he enjoys the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are – as St Paul tells us – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22). These are the gifts that we receive if we remain united in Jesus; and consequently a person who is so united to Him does so much good for his neighbor and for society, he is a Christian person. From these attitudes, in fact, one recognizes if one is a true Christian, as from the fruits one recognizes the tree. The fruits of this profound union with Christ are wonderful: our whole person is transformed by the grace of the Spirit: soul, understanding, will, affections, and even body, because we are united body and soul. We receive a new way of being, the life of Christ becomes ours: we can think like Him, act like Him, see the world and things with the eyes of Jesus. As a result, we can love our brothers and sisters, starting with the poorest and most suffering, as He did, and love them with His heart and thus bring into the world fruits of goodness, charity and peace.
Each one of us is a branch of the one vine; and all together are called to bear the fruits of this common belonging to Christ and in the Church. Let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, so that we may be living branches in the Church and bear witness to our faith in a coherent way – coherence precisely of life and thought, of life and faith – aware that all of us, according to our particular vocations, participate in the one saving mission of Christ.