Fift Sunday of Easter , Year B John 15, 1-8

The Man Who Bears Fruit You may still remember the idea of the so-called useless man from school, specifically from literature lessons. The Russian Romantic writers of the 19th century, such as Goncharov in his Oblomov, Pushkin in Eugene Onegin, and Turgenev in Rudin, dealt with it in their literary works. A useless person (лишний человек) was usually a nobleman or member of the upper class who, although talented and capable, was nevertheless unsuited to any ordinary career. He was afraid to take risks, could not make decisions, or refused to take responsibility for anything. As a result, he would become lazy, unsuccessful, completely passive about his life, and thus quite useless. He will create nothing and nothing will be left of him. He is simply a burden. The theory of the useless man is not fiction, but a fact. How many people around us today could we include here? They are mere idlers, devouring parasites, of whom nothing remains, people useless for anything. How not to become them? Which people are the best candidates for useless people? Is there some quality in our nature that predisposes us to become useless people? Yes, there is. It is the inability and unwillingness to suffer. Without suffering and pain, there is no growth, only decline. But accepting pain is not easy. If suffering appears in our lives, we immediately think that God is punishing us. Many of us rely on God in this way: “Why does God allow all this to happen to me? If I were a pervert or a hedonist, an egoist or a parasite, a schemer or a criminal, a cheat, a rapist, or a tyrant, … then I would be able to understand why God is punishing me. But I live righteously, fulfill my duties, obey the laws honestly, sacrifice for my children, and work from dawn to dusk. So why is God punishing me? Why is my effort to do good rewarded with so much adversity? The more good I do, the more my misfortunes multiply. How is it that the bad prosper and the good have to suffer so often and so much? Why do the good mourn and the bad laugh? Jesus answers, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit in me, and every branch that bears fruit he cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.” In Jesus’ words, the goal of our lives is to bear fruit. If we do not bear fruit, our life is worthless. A person who does not bear fruit is like a dry or wild tree; he is just taking up space unnecessarily. The only thing he can still be used for, and even then only once, is fire.
Isn’t that the case in everyday life? Let us look at nature, at the gardener and the vinedresser. Let us ask them why they let the oak tree that grows beside the road leading to their garden, or the poplar or birch tree grow unnoticed. And why, on the other hand, do they treat the vine, the apple tree, or the apricot tree completely differently year after year? Year after year these poor trees are mutilated and pruned. Why do they not touch some, while hurting others? There is not a year that goes by when the gardener does not approach these kinds of plants and inflict pain on them, while quietly, unobserved, he lets plants grow which brings him no benefit. It is not a secret. If a tree that bears fruit is not pruned, it will wither. If it is pruned, it becomes nobler and more fruitful. A tree that does not bear fruit will stay in the ground as long as we want, but sooner or later it will end up in the fire.

It is the same with people. He, too, will become a brick if he is not lifted by adversity. You, too, will become a great egoist if pain does not raise you to the right level. That you are not a tyrant, a wicked villain, is only because pain at the very birth of these vices has cut off their shoots and prevented them from engulfing for themselves your whole mental life. That you are not dishonest, pets and villains is only because pain, as a kind of guardian, has prevented you from transcending the boundaries of depravity and vice. Or that it exposed you in time and confiscated all the illicit goods you wanted to accumulate in the luggage of your heart. Or took one of your dear ones away from you so that you could break away from your trench and more fervently long for your true homeland.

The root of all vice is selfishness. The best food for it is beneficial. The greater the wealth, affluence, and success, the more self-love grows and becomes aggressive and greedy. Therefore, he who does not suffer cannot understand others, and he who does not understand cannot love, and he who does not love is like a wild tree: he cannot do good. Let us look around and observe people, and we will find that this is so. An easy, comfortable, and lazy life makes people lazy, limited, and vicious. It stops their inner development. Those who do not suffer, suffer because they have no place to gain experience. We do not know life from books but from experience, struggle, and suffering. It is not age that makes one mature; it is a virtue that one has cultivated through experience. A pilot proves his skill not on a calm sea, but on a rough sea. You will be as great as your pain.

I like the legend describing how the bamboo, a beautiful tree in love with itself, became a useful tree. But to do that, the gardener first had to cut it down, then cut off all its beautiful branches, then move it to another place and cut it in half. To that extent, it could become a trough for him, through which water from the spring flowed to where the gardener needed it. Through it all, the bamboo was frightened, suffering, and resisting the gardener’s intentions, but in the end, he was happy to be of help.

This story beautifully and accurately expresses the meaning of life. It just says differently what today’s gospel says to the vine and branches. The purpose of our lives is to bear fruit. If you don’t bear fruit, or if your only fruit is a sour plain, then you are a wild, useless, and therefore essentially useless tree.

To understand properly, we must be careful when we speak of useless people. Godless regimes like to entertain this idea as well. That is why, under Hitler, handicapped people ended up in gas chambers, and today many elderly people end up being euthanized. For Christians, the life of helpless people is not useless. A useless life is the life of a person who voluntarily chooses to create nothing and to live only at the expense of others because he rejects the pain of growth, discipline, and struggle with his vices and passions. Lord, let the goal of my life be to bear abundant fruit no matter the cost.