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In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Feast of Booths or Tabernacles commemorates the wandering in the desert.
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in scripture:
“Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.”
Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith:
“The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone that will make people stumble,
and a rock that will make them fall.”
They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were “no people”
but now you are God’s people;
you “had not received mercy”
but now you have received mercy.
vv 4-10 are midrash on
Peter also draws on and Psam 117(118):22
This is the only place on NT these three stone references are drawn together. Paul presents 8:14 as part of in
believer vs. non believers. Believers are "'Israel' as God intended her from the time of the Exodus, a holy people called to worship and praise God in the world. In this sense they are a priesthood; their priestly activity is directed, by definition, toward God."
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still “enemies.”100 The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.101 ()
The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: “charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”102
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 449.
1826 “If I … have not charity,” says the Apostle, “I am nothing.” Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, “if I … have not charity, I gain nothing.”103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.”104
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 449.
1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which “binds everything together in perfect harmony”;105 it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love. (; )
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 449.
1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who “first loved us”:106 ()
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, … we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands … we are in the position of children.107
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 450.
1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: ()
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.108
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 450.
Pius XII once stated: “The Faithful, more precisely the lay faithful, find themselves on the front lines of the Church’s life; for them the Church is the animating principle for human society. Therefore, they in particular, ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the head of all, and of the Bishops in communion with him. These are the Church …”(16).
According to the Biblical image of the vineyard, the lay faithful, together with all the other members of the Church, are branches engrafted to Christ the true vine, and from him derive their life and fruitfulness.
Incorporation into Christ through faith and Baptism is the source of being a Christian in the mystery of the Church. This mystery constitutes the Christian’s most basic “features” and serves as the basis for all the vocations and dynamism of the Christian life of the lay faithful (cf. ). In Christ who died and rose from the dead, the baptized become a “new creation” (; ), washed clean from sin and brought to life through grace.
Therefore, only through accepting the richness in mystery that God gives to the Christian in Baptism
John Paul II, Christifideles Laici (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1988).
19. Jesus Christ is our hope because he, the Eternal Word of God, who is always with the Father (cf. ), loved us so much that he assumed our human nature in all things but sin and shared in our life, for the sake of our salvation. The profession of this truth stands at the very heart of our faith. The loss of the truth about Jesus Christ, or a failure to comprehend that truth, prevent us from appreciating and entering into the mystery of God’s love and the Trinitarian communion.(33)
Jesus Christ is our hope because he reveals the mystery of the Trinity. This is the core of the Christian faith, and it can still make a significant contribution, as it has in the past, to the creation of structures which, inspired by the great values of the Gospel or measuring itself against them, are capable of promoting the life, history and culture of the different peoples of the Continent.
Many are the spiritual roots underlying the recognition
John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013).
God also speaks in his silence. This is the silence of the cross.
To remain in place, to tarry
To stand, to remain, to endure
Divine wisdom remains, and will make all things new (). The righteous and their generation will share in God’s abiding (). Their δικαιοσύνη endures (, ). Their counsel stands in face of the ungodly (, קום).
Friedrich Hauck, “Μένω, Ἐμ-, Παρα-, Περι-, Προσμένω, Μονή, Ὑπομένω, Ὑπομονή,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 575.
The Immutability of God, the eternal character of the dignity of Jesus in face of Jewish protests
The statement that Jesus Himself abides in is undoubtedly designed to assert apologetically the eternal character of the dignity of Jesus in face of Jewish protests which deny His Messiahship on the basis of His transitory earthly existence.4 The abiding of the Spirit on Christ in lifts Him above the prophets, who are honoured only with temporary inspiration. It also lifts His filling with the Spirit, and the later filling of Christians, above the passing ecstatic states of pagans. The endowment of the Spirit is a continuing state in the Christian religion.
Friedrich Hauck, “Μένω, Ἐμ-, Παρα-, Περι-, Προσμένω, Μονή, Ὑπομένω, Ὑπομονή,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 575–576.
By the use of μένειν Jn. seeks to express the immutability and inviolability of the relation of immanence. In so doing he elevates the Christian religion above what is attained in Hellenistic rapture or even in the prophecy of Israel. Thus God abides in Christ, . Believers abide in Christ (; ; , ; , ) and Christ in them (; ). God abides in believers (), and believers in God (; ). The eschatological promise of salvation becomes immediate possession in virtue of this statement in the present tense. Nevertheless, Jn. keeps to an expression (μένειν ἐν) which maintains biblical theism and avoids the assertions of identity found in Hellenistic mysticism.6 After the analogy of the personal statement Jn. uses μένειν ἐν for the abiding of the expressions of divine life in believers, e.g., God’s Word in ; ; ; life, ; love, ; truth, ; anointing, . Believers, too, abide in divine things, e.g., in God’s house, ; love, , ; light, ; doctrine, . Here again the relationship of salvation is both enduring and present. The same is true of perdition. Unbelievers abide in darkness () and death ().
Friedrich Hauck, “Μένω, Ἐμ-, Παρα-, Περι-, Προσμένω, Μονή, Ὑπομένω, Ὑπομονή,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 576.
FCD
Interesting discussion of the three offices in an older treatise
purpose
purpose
FCD
The purpose of redemption is realized through these three offices.
FCD
He, as priest, is separate from sinners
His priesthood in us is eternal.
FCD
SACFRIFICE IS AT THE HEART OF PRIESTHOOD, it's essence
FCD
FCD
THE VINE AND BRANCHES—IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD
THE VINE AND BRANCHES—IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. If I had not done works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Great reflection using the geography of the Holy Land.
To what site are they headed (Jn 18:1–3)? Jesus often uses the physical surroundings to illustrate his teaching (cf. Mk 11:20–21; Mt 4:18–19). How might he have used the environs around Jerusalem to d
To what site are they headed (Jn 18:1–3)? Jesus often uses the physical surroundings to illustrate his teaching (cf. Mk 11:20–21; Mt 4:18–19). How might he have used the environs around Jerusalem to d
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
Jesus often uses the geography to illustrate!
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
What was the “old vine”, and who is the “new vine” (Jn 15:1)? Who is the new Temple (Jn 1:14; 2:21; Col 2:9; Eph 2:19–22; 1 Cor 3:16–17; CCC 586, 756)? Who is the gate (Jn 10:7–9)? Who is the new high priest ()?
755 “The Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ, without whom we can do nothing.147 ()
756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the corner-stone. On this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church receives solidity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling-place of God among men; and, especially, the holy temple. This temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy city that is seen by John as it comes down out of heaven from God when the world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.148 (; ; )
757 “The Church, further, which is called ‘that Jerusalem which is above’ and ‘our mother’, is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb. It is she whom Christ ‘loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her.’ It is she whom he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly ‘nourishes and cherishes.’ ”149 (, ; )
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 199.
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
3. Union with Jesus means participation in the new Israel, the people of God—Jesus marks the beginning of the new Israel. Who is the new sacrifice ()? Who is the genuine vine (; )? Who is the vinedresser, the farmer (v. )? Who are the branches ()? What is the fruit of the vine (v. )? What happens to the branches that bear fruit (vv. , )? What happens to the branches that do not abide in the vine or bear much fruit (vv. , )?
Stephen K. Ray, St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 279.
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
4. In the Old Testament, Israel is often referred to as the vine, and God as the vinedresser (cf. ; ). Read , and consider the parallels with . Notice the use of the word son (, NIV), and the phrases “the man at your right hand” and “the son of man you have raised up for yourself” (, NIV). How might this terminology have been understood by the early Christians (; ; ; )?
» St. Augustine : “ ‘Look from heaven and see, and visit this vineyard.’ ‘And perfect Thou her whom Thy right hand hath planted’ (ver. ). No other plant Thou, but this [plant] make Thou perfect. For she is the very seed of Abraham, she is the very seed in whom all nations shall be blessed: there is the root where is borne the grafted wild olive. ‘Perfect Thou this vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted.’ But wherein doth He perfect? ‘And upon the Son of man, whom Thou hast strengthened to Thyself.’ What can be more evident? Why do ye still expect, that we should still explain to you in discourse, and should we not rather cry out with you in admiration, ‘Perfect Thou this vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and upon the Son of man’ perfect her? What Son of man? Him ‘whom Thou hast strengthened to Thyself A mighty stronghold: build as much as thou art able. ‘For other foundation no one is able to lay, except that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.’ ”5
Stephen K. Ray, St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 279–280.
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
TEMPLE GATES:
Historical note, vines on the Temple gates: “[The holy Temple’s] first gate was seventy cubits [eighty-twofeet] high, and twenty-five cubits [thirty feet] broad; but this gate had no doors; for it represented the universal visibility of heaven, and that it cannot be excluded from any place. Its front was covered with gold all over.… That gate which was at this end of the first part of the house was, as we have already observed, all over covered with gold, as was its whole wall about it; it had also golden vines above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man’s height.”2 “The vine was of great importance in the religion of Israel. It was used as a symbol of the religious life of Israel itself, and a carving of a bunch of grapes often adorned the front exterior of the synagogue. The symbolism was based upon passages such as and where Israel is God’s vine.”3
Stephen K. Ray, St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 279.
Theological note: Jesus frequently uses words with double meanings to emphasize his point (for example, “wind” and “spirit”, born “again” and born from “above”). John uses such a double meaning here in 15:2, where the word “prune” means both to prune or trim back a vine and to cleanse or purify. Where has Jesus just referred to cleansing (Jn 13:8–10)? “In Jn 15:2 the verb [prune] involves a play on two different meanings. The one meaning involves pruning of a plant, while the other meaning involves a cleansing process.”7 Notice how Jesus ties the pruning of the fruitful branches to our moral conduct and practice. God cleanses his people through baptism and confession, as we have seen in John 3 and 13. God also cleanses his Church by pruning unfruitful vines. How are “pruning” and “cleansing” similar and different?
“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. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
In an earlier instance, how has Jesus instructed us to abide in him (; )? How does he continue to love and communicate his grace (life) to us today (, )? How does prayer enable us to abide in Christ (, )? Why is the presence and relationship with Christ more intense now than it was when he walked the earth (; )?
Stephen K. Ray, St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 283.
CL
I Am The Vine And You Are The Branches
The Dignity of the Lay Faithful in the Church as Mystery
The Mystery of the Vine
8. The Sacred Scriptures use the image of the vine in various ways. In a particular case, the vine serves to express the Mystery of the People of God. From this perspective which emphasizes the Church’s internal nature, the lay faithful are seen not simply as labourers who work in the vineyard, but as themselves being a part of the vineyard. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches” ().
The prophets in the Old Testament used the image of the vine to describe the chosen people. Israel is God’s vine, the Lord’s own work, the joy of his heart: “I have planted you a choice vine” (); “Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water” (); “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines …” ().
Jesus himself once again takes up the symbol of the vine and uses it to illustrate various aspects of the Kingdom of God: “A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower and let it out to tenants and went into another country” (; cf. ).
John the Evangelist invites us to go further and leads us to discover the mystery of the vine: it is the figure and symbol not only of the People of God, but of Jesus himself. He is the vine and we, his disciples, are the branches. He is the “true vine”, to which the branches are engrafted to have life (cf. ).
The Second Vatican Council, making reference to the various biblical images that help to reveal the mystery of the Church, proposes again the image of the vine and the branches: “Christ is the true vine who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us. Through the Church we abide in Christ, without whom we can do nothing ()”(12). The Church herself, then, is the vine in the gospel. She is mystery because the very life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the gift gratuitously offered to all those who are born of water and the Holy Spirit (cf. ), and called to relive the very communion of God and to manifest it and communicate it in history (mission): “In that day”, Jesus says, “you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you” ().
Only from inside the Church’s mystery of communion is the “identity” of the lay faithful made known, and their fundamental dignity revealed. Only within the context of this dignity can their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world be defined.
John Paul II, Christifideles Laici (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1988).
PSDCMV13
SOLIDARITY
CHARITY
VINE: WE ARE PART OF THE BRANCH, NOT SIMPLY WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD
Jesus assures his Apostles and us that if we listen to his word and allow it to take root and direct our lives we draw life from our Heavenly Father:
“The Face of God, progressively revealed in the history of salvation, shines in its fullness in the Face of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; truly distinct and truly one, because God is an infinite communion of love. God’s gratuitous love for humanity is revealed, before anything else, as love springing from the Father, from whom everything draws its source; as the free communication that the Son makes of this love, giving himself anew to the Father and giving himself to mankind; as the ever new fruitfulness of divine love that the Holy Spirit pours forth into the hearts of men (cf. ).”
James M. Reinert, Preaching the Social Doctrine of the Church in the Mass, vol. 2 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011), 68–69.
“Jesus of Nazareth makes the connection between solidarity and charity shine brightly before all, illuminating the entire meaning of this connection:37 “In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to go beyond itself, to take on the specifically Christian dimensions of total gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation. One’s neighbour is then not only a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but becomes the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbour must therefore be loved, even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her; and for that person’s sake one must be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren (cf. ).”38 (196)
As a result of all of this, according to St. Luke, in today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles: “Meanwhile, throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria the church was at peace. It was being built up and was making steady progress in the fear o the Lord; at the same time it enjoyed the increased consolation of the Holy Spirit.”
James M. Reinert, Preaching the Social Doctrine of the Church in the Mass, vol. 2 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011), 70.