Have you ever seen trees after a heavy storm? A tear falls from many an eye at that sight – uprooted trees, broken branches… We can observe something similar in spiritual life. For example, preventing someone from contacting God. Setting a bad example, being a scandal… Lord Jesus reminds us: “I am the vine…” (Jn 15:1)The parable of the vine branch is relevant even today. With the image of the “vineyard”, which was known to his listeners and comprehensible to us today, Lord Jesus points to the truth announced by Jesus and everyone who believes his words. In the allegory of the branch, Jesus follows not only a well-known matter from the life of nature, but in the context of an Old Testament prediction, he touches on the image in the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah about the “vineyard of the Lord”. “What else should I have done to my vineyard that I did not do to it” (Isaiah 5:4)?
Through Jesus and him, we receive graces and gifts. Only direct contact with him is a guarantee of a harvest. “He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). The text says that each of us who have been incorporated into the Church through baptism is a branch. God is already in the Old according to the law, he plants, protects, and cleans his vineyard, but he also expects a harvest from it. The Gospel does not present just some image. It is a living image and it appeals. What it says shakes our conscience: “Without me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15, 5). The Catechism reminds us in article 755 that the Church is cultivated land, God’s role. The true vine is Christ, who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us who, through the Church, remain in him, and without him, we can do nothing.
Today, as well as in the past, voices were heard against this image, and therefore against the teachings of the Church. Even Christians often think only of priests, religious, bishops, or the pope when they think of the Church. We know who and how he becomes a member of the Church. So the Church is not just a hierarchy. This is exactly what Jesus means in the parable of the vine and the branches. Jesus points out that it is not enough to be baptized…
The Church performs visible actions in which Christ is the source of strength, which is invisible, but which not only gives strength for life on earth but is also a guarantee of eternal life. Therefore, the Church has something to say about life on earth as well. Those who would like to close the Church only to churches, so that it manifests itself only on Sundays, or only as a private matter, are wrong. The faithful of the Church have made mistakes and errors. We know that it is not the Church, but the people. The church is the work of God and not of man.
It is right that today there are more and more Christians who do not believe all the news about the Church, about the bishops… They know that a lie can be presented as the truth. They are not afraid to speak up even when they are beaten, insulted, and slandered. It is sad that many are not properly informed and cannot explain things to themselves, do not want to learn, and do not follow the truth. Let’s prevent everything that would rob us and others of God, his love, and eternal life
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