4292018 B | 5th Sunday of Easter
Connectivity is one of the by-words of today’s technological culture. We all want our various devices bundled and connected. We want to be connected on the internet, on social media, on our smart phones. And when we’re not connected—or the connectivity is broken—we get sort of upset about it. (Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, right?) Or when we don’t have access to our cell phones or tablets, we feel a little discombobulated. (Of course, even though in most of our history, we survived quite well without such things. Thank you very much.) So connectivity—connection—is a by-word of our era.
What about connection to God? Do we get discombobulated when that connection might not be as firm or as reliable as we would like it to be? Do we even give it a moment’s notice? The classical image of the vine and the branches from John’s gospel (ch. 15) is the biblical bundling package. It bespeaks a radical connectivity, a connection at the roots. Jesus uses the image precisely to drive home the point that a disciple must be so connected—he uses the word remain (menein in Greek, meaning also abide, dwell, stay, live) eight times in the passage—to him that if that disciple were not connected, it would be like a branch that is no longer connected to its parent vine. What happens then? Disconnection, death.
A disciple must not forget that Jesus is the vine and that the disciple has to stay connected to Jesus to have life. And not only is Jesus the vine; he is the true vine. Etymologically in Greek, truth (aletheia) has the connotation of not forgetting. Literally, truth is a not forgetting. The disciple of Jesus must not forget that he is first connected to Jesus—he or she can’t forget the bundling package. If they forget that—are not true to themselves—they then cut themselves off from the source of life and grace which is Jesus, just like the branch which might have been cut off from its vine.
But, the teaching of Jesus in the last supper discourse of John’s gospel is precisely to drive home the point that the disciple must abide/remain in Jesus as the branch remains/abides in the vine. The repetition underscores this point powerfully, as does the fact that this is now the literary center of the last supper discourse (chaps. 13-17 of John’s gospel). This is then the whole point. It’s as if Jesus is saying: “Don’t forget—be true to yourself—that you cannot even live without a relationship in me.”
More than our whining desire for a technological connectivity, as manifested by the age in which we live, we should desire that connection to Christ. And we see it on display in our lives right now. For example, those—mostly children—who are making their first communion during this Easter season are going to experience for the first time that connection to Jesus as they feast upon him…eating his body and drinking his blood in the Eucharist. They will commune with Jesus, share their first communion with him, become one with (comm-unio) Jesus.
Another example: If you have ever made a retreat in some form or fashion, you know how you were connected to Jesus in a quite intentional and deliberate way. You experienced the connectivity that comes with remaining, abiding in Christ. You adored Christ. Through your adoration of Christ—a word which means mouth to mouth (think of a kiss or resuscitation)—you experienced the intimacy of being connected to Christ. You know you are branches on the vine that is Christ Jesus.
But, whether it is in partaking of communion the first time or the thousandth, whether it is in being a part of a retreat intentionally given over to plumbing the depths of one’s relationship to Jesus or simply living one’s faith daily, none of it can truly happen without a deep and abiding connection to Jesus.
Hear the simple yet eloquent words again: “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.” May we never forget; may we never lose that truth; may we be true to our fundamental identity in Christ.