Did you ever have one of those days?  You know, one of THOSE days when you were tired, when you had had enuf, when you just wanted a break?  When you wanted to get away?  Me, too.  And apparently Jesus and the disciples had them on occasion.  In the Gospel reading for today, we find that Jesus wanted to ‘cross over to the other side’ of the Sea, so that he could have some time alone, away from the crowds, and with his disciples, for some quality time I would imagine.  The disciples were all for it, and away they went.  Jesus needed a break.  He gets in the boat, and goes to sleep.

And then it stormed…..  Not just your average run of the mill storm, but a STORM…..at sea even.  Thunder.  BOOM!  Lightening.  FLASH!  Waves so high over the little boat that it was tossed about.  CRASH!  And to top it off, the boat started filling up with water.  SLOSH…..Sink?  And Jesus slept on.  And on.  And on.

And then it happened.  The disciples, those stalwart fishermen, panicked; so much so that they wanted Jesus to panic, too.  So, they woke him.

Now, I dunno about Jesus, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a Keurig on that boat, but anyone who knows me well, knows, that no matter what, one does NOT speak to the Bishop when he first wakes up until after his (at least) second cup of coffee.  Can you not see Jesus?  He throws the blanket off and says, WHAT?

The disciples point out the storm, Jesus’s eyes focus, and then he gets it.  He understands what all the fuss is about…..and then, like so many of us, he says,

“Really?”

I can just imagine him rolling his eyes, and then saying to the storm, in much the way I talk to our cats, says, “Stoppit!”  The storm quiets, Jesus  grumbles about nonbelieving disciples, and goes back to sleep…..and the (nonbelieving) disciples are tripped!

Y’all….we’re in the midst of a storm now, even as I type.  Many of us are fearful and dismayed.  Many of us are angry.  Many of us are in turmoil.  And rightly so.  With so much uncertainty on the horizon, many of us feel that we are in danger of sinking.  And, I rather suspect, that many of us wonder if God is, indeed, sleeping, if the Creator exists at all.

But ya know, I can assure you that God is very much awake, and involved, in our lives.  Or at least the Redeemer wants to be.  How, you ask?  By living through and with and in us.  By us showing forgiveness. Charity.  Good will.  Reaching out. Love.  By standing up for what is right and good and true.  By peacefully protesting.  By donating time and money to those who are less fortunate that we ourselves.  By examining what we believe, what we hold dear, and comparing that to what Jesus has taught us that we SHOULD hold dear and believe. 

This storm is far from over.  FAR from over.  Before this storm ends, hearts will have to change, attitudes will have to change, laws, rules, regulations, the government, will have to change, society will have to change.  And before any of that can happen, WE will have to change.  We will, ALL of us, have to examine ourselves carefully, and honestly, to find the roots of our prejudice, our fears of those who are ‘other’ than ourselves.  We will have to look with new eyes at all of those with whom we come into contact, ALL of them, EVERY ONE of them, and strive to find the Jesus in each of them.  The Jesus in us must reach out to the Jesus in our brothers and sisters, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, gender identity, sexual preference, ability or disability, political affiliation, or any of the other million and one things we use to denigrate, disgrace, and damn our brothers and sisters.

Like the disciples, we will be afraid.  Sometimes we may even panic.  But I can assure you that, like the disciples, we can go to Jesus.  And when we do, he will say to us, “Peace.  Be still.”  And in the calm and quiet that results from our trust in Him, we will be able, with full hearts, to grow, and to learn to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895) was one of the most beloved hymn writers of the nineteenth century, and she wrote a hymn that, I believe, is more than fitting for us today.

1 Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
of our life’s wild, restless sea;
day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
saying, “Christian, follow me.”
Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world’s golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, “Christian, love me more.”

2 In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still He calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me more than these.”
Jesus calls us- by Thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear Thy call;
give our hearts to Thine obedience,
serve and love Thee best of all.

When you tell a joke and someone stares blankly at you, you know they haven’t got it; and you know that if you explain it, it may eventually provoke a smile, but the fun has gone out of it. In other words, you may tell a story that illustrates a point, and it is quite normal to explain what you mean. Ezekiel told a story of a powerful eagle plucking the top of a cedar tree and transplanting it to another place, and that was meant to remind his hearers of what had happened when the king of Babylon had exiled the king of Israel and brought him to Babylon; the story we hear in today’s reading from Ezekiel is of God doing a similar – yet really very different – thing: God takes a shoot from the top of a cedar tree and plants it on a high mountain, and it becomes a noble cedar which provides shelter to many kinds of bird. The explanation is not a political one, though the listeners may well have hoped that Israel would be exalted by God and not humiliated by foreign rulers. The conclusion of the story (a story in the future) is that God is the true sovereign, and God is the only King. It is significant that the people of Israel developed an understanding of God’s greatness precisely at the time when they discovered themselves indistinguishable from themselves by political powers far superior than themselves. Instead of moaning about their defeat, or seeking an improved God, they realized that the God they had always believed in was greater than they had realized and had purposes beyond what they could understand. Note that the very high mountain on which God was going to plant the new noble cedar does not have a name, like Jerusalem or Zion; it’s beyond particular places and political systems, which exclude other places and systems; the power of God is a power over all of reality, including nature and politics; fundamentally it is a power to make things (and of course people) flourish and find a home.

The parables of Jesus are not stories that require an explanation, even though they are occasionally presented as if they were. Today’s two parables simply imply something and leave you to get it, or not, like a joke.

“This is what the kingdom of God is like”. “What can we say the kingdom of God is like?” (“Mark 4:30-32 – Bible.com”) And Jesus goes on to talk about everyday reality, nature doing what nature does. But this is not “just” nature: it’s nature seen with eyes which can spot a mystery: it’s not that the growth of the wheat or of the shrub is an illustration of the reality of the kingdom, a kind of visual aid which you could do without if you prefer to describe the kingdom in real terms. But what in real terms? What is more real than the miracle of growth which Jesus has just been talking about? Just let the story of growth be your way into the reality of the kingdom. There is a transformation going on, and maybe we can learn a kingdom mentality by hearing other stories of transformation, stories of hope; by becoming ourselves stories of transformation and of hope; by sharing hopes of transformation with others who long for our world to come alive, to be a home for all. Do I mean we must work with others to build the kingdom? No, I don’t. No way. We do not build the kingdom; it’s not that kind of reality. The kingdom is God’s kingdom, not ours. We will only be energized to do useful and creative work if we first learn to appreciate the miracle of the kingdom over which we have no control.

What these parables make us believe is life as a gift. (I’m not starting to explain them: I’m trying to sense, with their inspiration, what the God of the kingdom is like). In many, if not all societies, gifts are not really gifts at all; they are part of a system of exchange – think of Christmas presents and cards. But we do encounter people who simply give – and ultimately what they give is themselves. The kingdom is a divine gift from God. The wise person expresses gratitude.

In today’s Gospel Jesus was informed of the visit of His parents and relatives while He was teaching. At that time, many had been accusing Him of being with the demon and not of His mind. Jesus was trying to explain to them the foolishness of their accusation. Why would Satan destroy his own? It’s difficult to blame them. They were in desperate need. Jesus was attracting numerous people. They must resort to all kinds of methods to destroy His reputation.

However, Jesus’ reaction to the arrival of His parents and brothers and sisters was revealing. “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

The importance of biological relations is crucial. However, spiritual ones are essential and vital. What are biological relations if spiritual relations are abandoned or neglected? After all, our destiny is not for this world, but for the next one. Paramount in life is the result of salvation.

I had heard a similar story about a priest who has become a bishop. The priest was well-loved by his people and was being sought for advice. Others simply wanted to meet him even for a few minutes to hear his wisdom after his mass. One day, after mass, his mother wanted to talk to him. He had not been to visit her for a long time. His mother missed him so much, so she decided to attend his mass and hoped to talk with him after. When she went to the sacristy after mass, she saw a large group of people who wanted to meet her son. Worried about the reaction of her son and cautious not to create an issue if she will storm ahead of the line (She is the mother, remember?), she took her place in the line! You can just imagine the reaction of his son when she saw her mother after waiting in line. This time, it was the mother who lived in what Jesus taught. Blood relations are not passes to benefit from opportunities and graces. We stand in line if we should. We are baptized Catholics, and God’s will is not always the same as ours. Nor is it fulfilled when we are close to ministers or serve in parishes. We have a life to cherish. More importantly, we have a faith that we must live. We have a God to follow. We have a destiny to reach.

Some of that have family that do not or will not accept our choice to belong to the church family or even to follow Jesus. Some will even take steps to argue or belittle you to keep you from giving your time to the family of Christ. But As I have said on other occasions Jesus is not going to ask you about them on judgement day, He is only going to ask you, “Did you give my family your best?” Jesus Did!

Well y’all….  I have a confession to make.  Much to my chagrin and dismay, and to my husband’s shock, I confess to being less than perfect.   You know how I talk about showing love all the time?  In a lot of ways, I’m preaching to myself.  Loving is HARD.  I find myself making snarky comments, cracking on folks, getting angry at people who don’t share my views (really they should know better, but still,) and not being as loving as I should be.  The momentous events of this week, and the reactions of people thereto,  have made me sad, a wee bit angry, and a whole lot dismayed.  Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things have been said and done by people who should know better and……Sigh…..  In all of these things, I have to remind myself that there is not ONE person on this planet who God doesn’t love.  I need to do better.   SO much better.  This is why we say we PRACTICE our faith, coz we never, ever, get it right or master those commands Jesus gave us.  So practice we must.

What has brought this on, you ask?  Well, lemme put on my mitre (pointy bishop hat) and I’ll tell ya.

Today is a great Feast Day in the life of the liturgical church throughout Christendom:  The Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  This day is celebrated in recognition of the Eucharist, and everything the Eucharist is and means.  Today we celebrate, literally, the Body of Christ.  We all know that the Eucharist was instituted by Christ at the Last Supper.  We all know that Catholics believe that the bread and the wine become the body and blood of Our Lord.  We all know that our Protestant brothers and sisters believe that the bread and the wine are symbolic of the body and blood of our Lord.  We all know that wars have been fought over these two basic, yet entirely different, beliefs.  We also know that from many, if not most, of the liturgical pulpits in the world, today the Word will be proclaimed concerning the Eucharist. 

Today, however, I would like to put a different spin on Corpus Christi.  I would like for us to leave the upper room of Christ and the disciples, and jump ahead a few years to Corinth, and to listen to what the Apostle Paul has to say about “the body of Christ” in his first letter to the Corinthians:

12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into[c] one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 

We, the Church, we, the people of God, we, those of us who confess Christ as our Lord, puny imperfect people that we are, WE are the body of Christ.  Some of us dress funny.  Some of us talk funny.  Some of us have emotional issues.  Some of us just have issues.  But we, ALL of us, together, make up the body of Christ.  Warts and all.  Some of us are wildly and multiply talented.  Some of us are incredibly intelligent.  Some of us have been blessed with physical beauty.  Some of us have none of those things.  Some of us have been blessed with spiritual beauty.  Be we, ALL of us together, make up the body of Christ.

Because we are all of us different, it can be said that we make up different parts of the body of Christ.  We each of us have different gifts.  Some make up the head, some the heart.  Others are the feet and the hands of the body of Christ.  Granted there are parts of the body of Christ that we would rather keep hidden, under wraps (oh I want to be snarky here…  I’m really trying, y’all.)  But are these parts any less important?  Do these parts not serve a major and important function in the working of the body?  I believe that they do.

My point, here, folks, if I haven’t made it already is simply this:  WE, all of us, make up the body of Christ.  What one person brings to the table may not be of particular interest or value to another person, but there is someone at that table who needs just that.  Perhaps we feel that this person or that person isn’t quite what we would like to see in our church, or in our family, or in our lives, but to someone, somewhere, that person is exactly who is needed.  The very person whom we consider to be “less than worthy” to represent Christ and His church may just be the exact one who is needed in certain situations.

There has been much made of certain politicians being excluded from receiving communion because of their political beliefs.  Who are we, as clergy, to deny anyone the Body of Christ?   I would ask these folks, ‘Did Jesus not sit down and break bread with Judas?’  Who are we to judge who is worthy, if we, all of us, are a part of the body of Christ? 

In the words of John D Whitney, SJ:

“I want to write a longer piece about those bishops who seek to keep some from the table of Christ, but for now I will say this: it is not your table (nor mine). Bishops, priests, etc. are neither the hosts nor the bouncers nor the ones who wrote the guest list. The Eucharist is the resurrected body of Christ given for the life of the world. Jesus Christ is the one who invites the guests (‘all you who labor’); he is the host of those who come; he is the setter of the table; and he is the feast which is shared (‘Take this, all of you. . .this is my body, this is my blood’). We are guests at the meal, and sometimes (by his calling) servers. So stay in your lane, please. The wait staff doesn’t get to exclude those who want to come. If you don’t like the company Christ calls (and, admittedly, it is a rag tag bunch of sinners, one and all), it’s you who need to leave the table, not them.”

Along those lines, of course, members of our church, or any church, are not allowed to receive communion in the Roman Church at all, regardless of whether or not we are Christians.  Can you imagine Jesus saying to anyone, “You’re not a member of the club.  No communion for you.”  This is one of the many reasons why we practice an open table at the Eucharist.  Believers welcome.  

So, that drag queen you’re hating on?  That transman or transwoman?  That politician?  That bigot down the street?  That news anchor?  Yep.  God loves ‘em.  They are part of the body of Christ.

The music artist, John Michael Talbot, sums it up nicely:

One bread, one body, one Lord of all, one cup of blessing which we bless.

And we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.

Gentile or Jew, woman or man, no more.   Many the gifts, many the works, one in the Lord of all.

Grain for the fields, scattered and grown, gathered to one, for all.

One bread, one body, one Lord of all, one cup of blessing which we bless.  And we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.

As we go along in our daily lives, let us remember the lessons of today, this Feast of Corpus Christi, that we all of us make up the One Bread, the One Body, the One Cup, that is the Body of Christ.  Amen.

Well, Y’all….this is it.  Today marks the end of the Easter Season.   And yes, I can see the confused looks on your faces and hear the “Huhs?” you’re exclaiming, coz, you know, the Easter Bunny has already gone back to his Easter Basket Factory to start his process all over again, we’ve finally found that one (now smelly and rotten) Easter Egg we couldn’t find, and Jesus has done been raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven.  So what gives here?  Imma tell ya.

Today is Pentecost.  Today we celebrate that day long ago when the disciples were all hanging out together wondering what in the world they were posta be doing, when, according to The Good Book,  suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.  At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?  Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?

Well what’s up with that?  Let’s back up just a hair first.  Remember a few days ago, during the Ascension when Jesus did that whole disappearing into the clouds thing?  Right before that, he said to his disciples, he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  And BAM!  The disciples (and we) were given a job to do.  We were told in no uncertain terms to go hither and yon and tell folks about Jesus and his message to the world, and the lucky disciples were given the ability to do just that, to go and preach so that folks could understand what the heck they were saying.  (This would have been awesome for my French classes, but I digress.)

So reckon wonder what does all this mean for us today in the here and now?  Well, first of all, if we’re supposed to go all over the place preaching what Jesus wanted us to preach, before we do anything else, we gotta know what it is we’re preaching.  The whole central tenet of Jesus’s message, before anything else was love.  Love first, love last, love period.  Us having the courage to step out from wherever it is we are and say, in every language and to all people, “God loves you, I love you, and how can we help you?”  Pentecost reminds us that we are the only Bible some folks will ever read.  Pentecost reminds us that we are the only Jesus some folks will ever see.  How do we put that love into action?  Again, Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, house the unhoused, and make the world a better, more loving place.  Jesus did NOT tell us to crack on someone’s skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, body type, political affiliation, or any other perceived difference.  Jesus told us to love.  I’m not a big fan of Paul, but he certainly got it right when he wrote “love is patient, love is kind.  Love is gentle.  Love is longsuffering.”  Heck, even the Beatles had it right when they sang, “All ya need is love.”

Now there ya have it.  I’m gonna end this with the words of St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Amen.

The solemn feast of the Ascension of the Lord is one of those feasts that can cause fear to the preacher. How does one talk or write about this event? We cannot comprehend this event in our understanding.

It is not like death. Jesus was killed on the cross and is risen to die no more. It is not comparable to someone going away. If our friend goes away, they go somewhere. We can read about that place, we might even visit them, but Christ is taken up beyond the old creation.

In these days when men have walked on the moon, we might be forgiven for thinking that Christ is up there somewhere. Indeed, some have pondered the thought of a spacecraft picking him up. But Christ is not like those brave men who at this very moment are circling overhead in the international space station. Christ is no longer confined by his creation.

What we celebrate today cannot be understood as an isolated incident. It cannot be separated off from the death and resurrection of the Lord, and neither can it be separated off from the descent of the Spirit of the Lord. Death and descent into the grave, rising to new life, ascension into glory and descent of the Spirit are all parts of a single dynamic unfolding of the divine mystery in time; as well as the unfolding of our new life in the eternal. A moment becomes an eternity.

Within this moment the confines of human potential have been swept away. Within this eternal moment life becomes endless, the Son returns to the Father, and ‘earthbound’ creation finds a new home beyond the limits of mortality.

In this endless moment Christ transforms his followers into instruments of the divine. This transformation is both the glorification of the Father in the Son and the glorification of people in Christ. We might say, then, that the ascension is as much about ourselves as it is about Christ.

We tend to focus on Jesus disappearing from sight, but the movement of the divine reaches out beyond the figure of Christ. In Mark’s Gospel the ascension is sandwiched between instruction and action. Before the ascension the disciples are sent out by the risen Lord into the world. After the ascension the disciples take up this call and leave behind their former reality to enter into the world as instruments of the divine.

In Mark there is no explicit account of the descent of the Spirit, but we are told that when the disciples went out into the world the Lord collaborated with them. In John’s Gospel, Jesus comes to the apostles in the locked room and breathes on them and they receive the Spirit.

In the Acts of the Apostles the apostles are in the room when the Spirit descends on them as if it were tongues of fire. But last Sunday we read in Acts 10 that, as Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners, even the pagans. The descent of the Spirit is not restricted to one event but streams out from that moment of ascension into all times and places.

Here is the great wonder of the ascension. By being lifted up Christ has not deserted us but made it possible for his Spirit to enter all times and places. In this way it is possible for each of us to be transformed by the power of the Spirit into the agents or instruments of Christ. We become enlivened with his Spirit. Our actions become transformed by the Spirit of the God we love and serve. We have become Christs within the world.

The resurrection, ascension and decent of the Spirit continues to be realized in our lives. We draw on that moment suspended in eternity and hope that it will lead us to eternity with God.

We are approaching the end of the Easter season and the great feast of Pentecost, and already the sound of the mighty wind that will descend on the apostles like fire on that day is echoing in the background of this Sunday’s readings. The great gift of the Holy Spirit when he comes is certainly charity. When the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling within us at our Baptism, he forges in us a bond of love which binds us to Jesus and through Jesus the rest of his Church. It is to this gift of love that our readings this Sunday attract our attention.

In our first reading, a group of Gentiles experienced an intense experience of being loved by God when the Holy Spirit came upon them in power, and such was their joy that they exploded with praise. St. Peter and the Jewish Christians who were with him understood that the love of God is universal, extending beyond their own nation to embrace the entire world: all of us are loved by God.

We heard St. Peter declare: ‘The truth I have now come to realize’ he said, ‘is that God does not have favorites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.’

This love of God that becomes ours, part of us, through the Gift of the Spirit is unique and personal. God does not love human beings in a general manner, such as a group or an undifferentiated mass. He loves you and me particularly and individually. As my old university chaplain used to say, God does not only like you; he loves you! We are personally cherished by God and the sign of God’s special love for us is that we love God in return.

We heard in our second reading: My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

‘Loves come from God’ because God is love. When the Spirit of God emerges from our hearts and minds, he fills our sails and moves us towards love of God and neighbor. We love God because he loves us, and his love is wind in our sails that prompts us to return his love and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But what does it mean to love God? What does it mean to love our neighbor? To answer that question, we need to look to Jesus.

Jesus makes God’s love visible and tangible because he is created by God. Jesus is a divine individual who has assumed a human nature like ours, so that through this sacred humanity God himself can love us in a way that we can see and hear and feel and understand. Jesus shows us in his own body what a human life is when it is completely docile to the impetus of the Holy Spirit.

Our second reading continues: God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away. (“A reading from the first letter of St John (4:7-12) God is love”)

Initially, we have God’s love for us. Secondly, that divine love that we perceive in our human experience of love is made visible and tangible for us in the person of Jesus. Jesus fully reveals the extent of God’s love for us in his sacrifice on the cross which is offered for each one of us personally and individually. There is a third step, and Jesus emphasized this third step in our Gospel reading: we are to imitate the love of Jesus, which is the love of God, by loving one another with the same self-sacrificial love with which he loved us.

Jesus says to his disciples, and that means to you and me: This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you… What I command you is to love one another. (“Gospel – Liturgy Office”)

First, God is love. Second, his love is revealed to us, manifested to us, in the person of Jesus and especially his self-sacrifice for our sake on the cross. Third, we are called to reflect and share this divine love by loving one another with the same self-sacrificing love with which Jesus loves us. How is this possible? By our own strength, of course, it is impossible. But nothing is impossible for God. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will bind us to Jesus, and empower us to live the same kind of self-sacrificing life that Jesus lived: empower us to love God and neighbor. As St. Paul tells teaches us in Romans 8:14: ‘All those who are driven by the Spirit are children of God’. The Spirit is the wind in our sails: God himself enables us to love Him and love our neighbor. We must recognize that God loves us, and he showed us through Jesus and to love Jesus is to love our neighbor.

Did you know that God is a farmer?

Jesus said to his disciples:  “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.”

God has planted people. We are his garden, and he wants to produce fruit. You and I were created by God for a purpose—to produce fruit for God. But what kind of fruit is God looking for? He is looking for obedience, righteousness, worship, and glory from his creation. But if we are God’s garden, and if we are created to produce fruit for him, we arrive at a fundamental question: How can we be sure that God is pleased with our fruit?

Each and every religion has a different way of answering that question. What will it take for us to be acceptable to God? Do we need to follow a strict set of rules and regulations? Do we need to perform certain sacrifices and rituals? What do we do with the nagging feeling that we do not measure up?

Let’s talk about that.

In verse 1 of our reading today, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” Did you notice the “the” in there? Jesus did not say, “I am like a vine.” He is not just comparing himself to a vine. He is the vine. Similarly, he doesn’t say, “I am a vine,” as though there were many vines, and he is just one of them. No, Jesus says, “I am the vine,” the one and only vine.

But that is not all. Instead of simply saying, “I am the vine,” he says, “I am the true vine.” But what does that mean? How can a vine be true? The word true is the whole point. We then ask the question: If Jesus is the true vine, who or what is the untrue vine?

In today’s world, there are many “untrue vines:”  money, popularity, power.  All of these produce fruit.  But is it fruit that matters?

Jesus is the vine, and He said that we are the branches. In verse 5 Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Jesus makes it clear that there are two different kinds of branches: fruitful branches and unfruitful branches.

Which one are you? Are you a fruitful branch? Do you produce what is pleasing to God? Or are you an unfruitful branch? How can you be sure of which one you are? This passage tells us there is only one difference between the two. Fruitful branches abide in the vine. Verses 5 and 6 explain this clearly:

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

So the secret of the fruitful branches is that they abide in Jesus. What does it mean to abide? Abide basically means “to remain,” “to stay put,” “to linger in one place,”  “to dwell,” “to stay connected.”  The most important thing for a branch to do is to stay connected to the vine. Only a branch that receives life-giving sap from the vine will live and bear fruit.

And so it is with us.  Are you connected to Jesus?  Picture a lamp.   What is the purpose of a lamp?  What is the “fruit” of the lamp?  Light.  What has to happen before that lamp can work?   It has to have a bulb.  It has to be turned on.  It has to be connected to a power source.  And you say to me, Bishop, what does this have to do with vines?  Let me tell you.  The bulb of the lamp is our soul, our faith.   We have to turn on our faith by prayer and study….but does that shed any light? Not if the lamp isn’t plugged in it doesn’t.  In order for the lamp to work properly, or at all, it must be plugged in to the power source.  Like us.  We must be “plugged in” to Jesus.  Before we can bear any fruit at all, we must be connected to Jesus.  He must be our Power, our Strength, our Source.

And what, exactly, is our fruit to be?  We are told in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Chapter 5, verses 22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a Christian.  And so, what is it that our Christ expects of us?  He was pretty specific about it.  In Matthew 22: 36-40, Jesus says, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

How can you, how DO you, show the world Christ’s love?  How do you show the world that our Christ IS love?  DO you produce fruit?  What kind of branch are you?

Father God, You are indeed the Supreme Gardener.  We ask that you tend to us, nurture us, help us to grow and to bear fruit for You, that the world might see your love, and that we may bring others to the Light of your Salvation.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

The early Church portrayed Christ as a young shepherd
lovingly caring for his sheep. In today’s Gospel of John, we discover this
image once more. Christ, the Good Shepherd, is the person who lays down his
life for his flock. This contrasts with a helper who abandons the sheep,
leaving them vulnerable to the dangers at hand.

On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we are reminded that it is
Christ, who knows each of us, and that knowing brings us a new life. He knows
us, and he knows the Father who loves us. This echoes the great command to love
God and love our neighbor.

In this context, the understanding of Christ is one that
binds us together. All those who listen to his voice are drawn in unity to that
one flock that knows the one true Shepherd. Our understanding of Christ makes
us one. We are not hired individuals.

The first reading, from Acts, also presents this concept of
understanding. Peter preaches that Jesus Christ is the keystone in our world,
as he explains. However, there is a twist. Peter wants us to know the danger,
that of rejecting Jesus Christ in our lives. As Christ knows us and loves us,
we cannot accept and refuse to acknowledge Christ in our lives.

Most of us would be horrified to think of ourselves as
rejecting Christ, of rejecting our faith. However, there are other lesser ways
in which we reject Christ as the keystone of our lives. The truth is that we
are unable to comprehend the light of Christ. In our hectic life, we often
forget all too often. We neglect to devote time to prayer, or attend a class or
retreat, or read a book or article on the Christian faith.

These are all ways to enhance our understanding of Christ
that we take for granted. Other people also assist us in identifying Christ in
our lives. Who are the people in your life that show you the face of Christ? Do
we recognize how Christ is present to us even now? It may be a parent or
grandparent that showed you the love of Christ. For many of us, our list will
include a priest, a sister, or a brother. They have all been people who
listened to the Good Shepherd and shared that voice with us in our lives. Their
vocations help us to become more aware of Christ. This Sunday, Good Shepherd
Sunday, is in many dioceses, a day designated as ‘Vocations Sunday’, God’s
calling in our lives.

Clearly, each of us, as a Christian, has a message that was
born from the font of our baptism. Unfortunately, we may take this role as a
Christian for granted. If so, we must once again hear the Shepherd’s voice calling
to us amid our daily concerns and the loud drone of all our activities.

The vocation to marriage, with its unique call to
parenthood, takes on its wealthier meaning when we, as spouse or as family,
together hear God’s words in our lives. When we engage in worship at Mass, or
at prayer in our homes, we hear the Shepherd’s call in our hearts. Today, when
the clamor of this world rejects Christ, how do people hear God’s call, that
unique sense of who I am in God’s heart?

If you hear God speaking to your heart, don’t disregard such
gentle voices. I don’t believe that God suddenly stopped calling people to a
religious vocation. Rather, today we can easily put God in the background or
flat out refuse to hear His voice.

You might be at the start of your career and still a voice speaks to you. God calls us, but we for our part, must hear his voice. Don’t

reject the cornerstone of your life, don’t refuse Christ’s calling for you. Explore
and discover if a religious activity is a part of you.

At the end of the day, listening to this message is not a
waste of time. For the early Church, the image of the youthful Christ
shepherding his flock reflected hope, let that same hope be yours. Listen to
the Shepherd’s voice speaking to you.