Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,”

Eight times in today’s Gospel Jesus admonishes his disciples to “remain” in him. The Greek verb suggests making a permanent home, not a camp. Ironic, if you consider Jesus is preparing for his Ascension, but perhaps not. Each of us “remains” with Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It is rather an unusual way to think about our relationship with God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit...that we are asked to say rather than asking God to remain; our perception is often that God might leave given enough cause, but this is not the case.

The dwelling of the Spirit is a permanent fixture from our baptism. We can thwart the influence of the Spirit through sin, but the Spirit never departs and is infinitely patient.

We are given the image of Jesus as the fine and ourselves as the Church, the branches that are prepared to bear fruit. But, like the fruit, it is only viable in its attachment to the branch, and the branch’s attachment to the vine. So too, we must remain attached to Christ through the Spirit and dwell with God in order for our lives to realize the potential with which we have been gifted at baptism. We are a people of varied fruits of the Spirit in service of Christ’s mission. As St. Paul reminds us in Ephesians Chapter 4,

 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Paul uses the body and its parts to suggest the need for unity, Just as Jesus’ metaphor of the vine and branches suggest a crucial interdependence. And that is what the Church is—a community of faith animated collectively by its members remaining (and often struggling to remain) in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

In 1 John, we are reminded that our obedience to Christ comes in the form of following the two cardinal commandments of Jesus: that “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.”  Believing “in” the name is Jesus is “remaining”, being sensitive to the workings of the Holy Spirit as our condition for bearing fruit. Being part of the Church as the body of Christ, we need to remember that our fruit is not the product of our own efforts but the will of God. Our “fruitiness” is the outgrowth of our relationship with Christ both in and through the community of the Church. There are no ears walking down the street or grapes growing apart from the branch.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

We are the Good Shepherds; We are the Sheep

In today’s gospel, Jesus famously proclaims “I am the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep”. We are, perhaps, so familiar with this image of Jesus that it doesn’t make much of an impact.  However, if we consider who Jesus is, and who we are, it provides a powerful image of God’s love for us.

Shepherds not only watch over the flock, they share the pasture and the danger of being attacked by predators; they live with the sheep. We “like sheep have gone astray”(Is.53:6), but our shepherd is the one who will “lay down his life”. God is chasing us all over this world in the person of Christ through the Holy Spirit. This may sound a bit ephemeral—being looked over by the Holy Spirit—-but the Spirit makes her dwelling where the name of Jesus is invoked, and we, the faithful, are each of us both shepherd and sheep.

The power of Jesus’ name lives in each of the faithful, and we share in the relationship of God’s divinity. Our salvation is, in the Greek word for salvation, “being made whole” is not being rescued from a fiery pit and enjoying a bacchanal in heaven, but sharing in the life of the Trinity, as members of His family.  As St. Peter affirms, “There is no salvation through anyone else….” In no other religious belief or philosophy does God seek out the “lost sheep” and invite the sheep to share the life of the shepherd.  Christian salvation is being invited to enter the life of the Triune God and share in the intimacy of this relationship. Each of us has been called by our true name (Is.43:1) uttered by Christ, God’s Word to humanity.

Following Christ, we find fellowship and communion with one another; we speak the language of God to one another. We seek out the lost sheep because we are all of us “found sheep”, and through Christ, have become shepherds living with the sheep for whom we will lay down our lives.