{"id":1596,"date":"2015-05-03T13:06:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T17:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2015-05-03T13:06:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T17:06:45","slug":"5th-sunday-of-easter-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-of-easter-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday of Easter, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year B<\/a>
\nActs of the Apostles 9:26-31
\n1 John 3:18-24
\nJohn 15:1-8
\nMay 3, 2015<\/p>\n

To help us understand what our relationship should be with Him, Jesus uses earthly comparisons like \u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Last week it was \u201cI am the good shepherd<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Today it is \u201cI am the true vine<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

We know light is necessary for us to be able to see.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 day, the image of a shepherd was very familiar to the people.\u00a0 Today, not so much but we can still relate to it.\u00a0 The image of the vineyard was familiar to the Israelites and, since we live in the Finger Lakes and wine country, it is a meaningful image for us.<\/p>\n

When you drive past a vineyard, you do not see grape vines laying on the ground going every which way.\u00a0 The vines are planted in neat rows and pruned and tied to make it possible for them to thrive and bear fruit.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t prune the grapes, they won\u2019t bear much fruit.\u00a0 In the same way we must prune our own lives so that we might thrive.\u00a0 What do we use as the criteria for pruning?<\/p>\n

Honestly, when I trim vines, trees, or bushes, I really don\u2019t know what to prune.\u00a0 If a tree branch is too low to walk under I cut it.\u00a0 If it is crooked, I cut it.<\/p>\n

For pruning our lives, we need to turn to God to set the priorities in our lives.\u00a0 We can have a lot going on in our lives and at some point it becomes too much and we start cutting.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we don\u2019t always trim for the right reasons.\u00a0 We might keep what is fun rather than what is good for us.\u00a0 We might hold on to what makes us popular or what is easiest. \u00a0Doesn\u2019t it make sense to get rid of the hard stuff?<\/p>\n

The other option we might do is rather than get rid of anything, we keep everything but we might do the absolute bare minimum.\u00a0 We can do this with our faith saying if we just come to church once in a while it is enough.\u00a0 How much do we get out of it?\u00a0 If we want to get more out of it, we must put more into it and when that isn\u2019t enough ask God to do the rest.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to the image of Jesus as the vine.\u00a0 He is the vine and that makes us the branches.\u00a0 The branches cannot live without the vine.\u00a0 The nourishment the branches need comes from the vine.<\/p>\n

When we seek to do the minimum for our faith are we really connected to Jesus or do we just bump up against Him once in a while?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before the wild grape vines at my dad\u2019s.\u00a0 I thought I had gotten rid of most of them but last week I found a vine that had sprouted up again, growing up and wrapping itself around a tree.\u00a0 While it was wrapped around the tree it was not connected to the tree.\u00a0 The vine had its own roots in the ground.<\/p>\n

I found the place where the vine came out of the ground and that is where I cut it.\u00a0 Because it was wrapped around the tree, I couldn\u2019t pull it all down immediately but once I cut it, the branches very quickly died and then I could pull them off.<\/p>\n

When we sin, we cut ourselves off from Jesus and experience a spiritual death.\u00a0 We cannot find true life on our own.\u00a0 Fortunately, Jesus has an answer.\u00a0 Jesus has a way to regraft us onto the vine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called the Sacrament of Reconciliation (or confession).\u00a0 Do we see it as a gift or do we fear it?<\/p>\n

We might fear it because we know we deserve to be punished.\u00a0 We know God has the power to punish.\u00a0 The Old Testament speaks of God\u2019s punishment but in the New Testament a new image of mercy.<\/p>\n

Think about Saul\/Paul.\u00a0 As Saul, he was a zealous persecutor of the Christians.\u00a0 So much so that they feared him and didn\u2019t want to go near him.\u00a0 When he became a Christian, they did not believe it, they still feared him.\u00a0 For those who did believe him, he became a great instrument of spreading the faith.<\/p>\n

Paul moved from being a persecutor to a champion of the faith.\u00a0 If he can change, so can we.\u00a0 When we confession our sins we say an act of contrition that includes a promise to not sin again but we do.\u00a0 There\u2019s where we need God\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

How much is Jesus a priority in your life?\u00a0 If He is not #1, why not?\u00a0 Would you like to change that?\u00a0 What will it take?<\/p>\n

If we wish to know eternal life, we must remain with Jesus in all things.\u00a0 May God help us to always remain connected to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Easter, Year B Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31 1 John 3:18-24 John 15:1-8 May 3, 2015 To help us understand what our relationship should be with Him, Jesus uses earthly comparisons like \u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Last week it was \u201cI am the good shepherd.\u201d\u00a0 Today it is \u201cI …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th Sunday of Easter, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-pK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}