Deacon Larry

5th Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8

Dc. Larry Brockman

Today’s Gospel says that you must be pruned to bear fruit.  Do you ever feel like you are being pruned?  I sure do- with a heart attack just 6 months ago, and now a back injury.  These things seem to be limiting me- and I end up being absorbed by the pain and these limitations.  I bet that most of you, too, are experiencing your share of pruning, and the self absorption that goes with it.  The pruning may be painful, physical sufferings, like sickness, disease, financial insecurity, or old-age.  Or it may be hidden, interior sufferings, like losing a loved one, having a moral dilemma at work, or watching a dear relative abandon their Catholic faith.  But whatever it is, it can challenge us because it is hard to focus on anything other than the suffering.   

And yet, I am reminded of a quote from St. Ignatius of Loyola:  “If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that he has great designs for you, and that he certainly intends to make you a saint.”  So, there is good news here for all of us who feel we suffer.  Because, if you can bear fruit in the face of suffering, then you have the inside track for becoming a saint.   

In the second reading, St. John speaks about what we need to do to bear fruit.  He says we need to love, not just in word or speech, but in deed or truth.  But what does that really mean?   

Our society preaches tolerance, and perhaps to an extreme.  It teaches that everyone should be given the freedom to “choose”, t To choose what’s right just for them.  And that even if they choose “wrong” in the eyes of a majority; that’s OK, as long as it doesn’t exceed some society defined standards.  Unfortunately, as we become a more secular society, that standard has changed and become more permissive.  Hence, gay marriage, abortion, and assisted suicide appear to be gaining in acceptance by our society; so do pornography, sex outside of marriage and drugs.  Yes, integral to this secular standard is the right to pick and choose; because right is relative- relative to one’s ability to discern or handle the situation,- that’s the picking part; and the choice relates to the situation itself- that is, what is good just for me in this situation; and that’s the choosing part.  So, for example, when someone is aged, disabled and suffering, a victim of the pruning I talked about earlier, society is beginning to think it’s OK for them to choose “ending it all” to relieve their suffering.  The state governments in Oregon and Washington believe it is, because assisted suicide is legal there.   

Now it seems to me that Catholics are beginning to apply this external secular set of standards, and the pick and choose philosophy that goes with it, to their attitudes about their Faith.  The head of Notre Dame is doing just that in awarding President Obama an honorary degree.  He has chosen to pick and choose the relative merits- favoring prestige over life.   

Are we guilty of similar behavior?  I’m not talking about choosing sin, because we choose to sin sometimes, and we know we are sinning.  Then we seek forgiveness for it.  The point being that we still recognize that sin is wrong.  Rather, I’m talking about choosing to accept or reject what our church teaches in certain areas in such a way that we delude ourselves into thinking that there is no sin where the Church teaches that there is.  This picking and choosing is exactly what constitutes the difference between loving in word and speech, and loving in deed and truth.  

It isn’t sufficient for us to just look like good Catholics – by praying, coming to Mass, and involving our children in Prep or CCD.   But we also must make a daily effort to live like good Catholics: by studying Church teachings until we understand and embrace them so that they becomes part of our own life; by speaking up for Christ’s truth to our congress and state legislators, even when it is unpopular; by going out of our way to help others; and by resisting temptation and carrying our crosses with elegance.  We must be faithful to both Catholic morality and to what we perceive is our life-mission, even if it means enduring discomforts like hardship, ridicule, and persecution.  That’s all part of the consequences of the pruning- a constriction of our options so we are able to bear fruit in the areas God wants for us to excel.   

That’s what loving in deed and truth means.  It means loving God and his will for us first,  instead of choosing what is the most comfortable or expedient response.  In other words, we love God by our obedience to God’s law as our first priority.   

Such love takes patience, courage, self sacrifice, and humility to be effective.  This weekend we celebrate Mother’s day.  I can think of no better example of what it means to be loving in deed and truth, than the example set forth by so many of our mothers.  Patience, yes- the kind of patience it takes to handle your children who constantly try to stretch the boundaries.  Courage, yes- the kind of courage it takes to be consistent with your children in your dealings with them.  Self sacrifice- absolutely, the kind of self sacrifice that puts your children’s education and care ahead of your own wants.  And last and most importantly, humility- also yes, the kind it takes to clean up after your children, whenever and wherever the needs arises.  And these wonderful mothers definitely bear fruit because their children are a living testimony to their efforts.     

Today, as we hear that we are the branches, and Christ is the vine, let us accept the fact that our sufferings are our opportunities, not just meaningless pain into which we become self absorbed, and then seek to act with a humble and loving heart to make the most of those opportunities to bear fruit.  For, as St Vincent de Paul put it:  “The most powerful weapon to conquer the Devil is humility.   For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.”