13 November 2024 - Benedictine All Saints' Day
Is 61:9-11; Jn 15:1...8
Homily
‘I am the true vine’. This is one of the many statements in which Jesus reveals His identity: I am the living water, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the door of the sheep, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and so on. The elements with which he identifies are almost always essential elements of human life, and an adjective is often added to emphasise their importance: living water, the good shepherd, for example.
Here, Jesus presents himself as the true vine. To understand the meaning of this adjective, we must remember that truth, in Jewish thought, is closely linked with the idea of fidelity and constancy. We must not forget that throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the Prophets, the people of Israel are compared to a vine (Hosea 10:1; Jer 2:21; Ezek 17:1-10; Isaiah 5:1-8 etc.). But the problem with this vine is that it has not been true, it has not been faithful, and so it has not borne fruit for its owner. It is therefore in opposition to this vine that Jesus declares: ‘I am the true vine’.
Another important category in our text is that of permanence. The verb ‘to remain’ recurs constantly (eight times) like a leitmotif. We can only bear fruit if we remain closely united to Jesus; that is, if we remain in Him and He in us. And the glory of the Father of Jesus, who is the vinedresser, is that we bear much fruit. Indeed, we are not called to be disciples of Jesus and to form his Church simply for our own individual perfection, but to bear fruit in the world, to which we are sent to be witnesses of the salvation brought by Jesus.
Jesus takes the image of the vine even further. In order to bear fruit, it is not enough to remain attached to the vine. We have to be willing to be purified, to be pruned; to be stripped of everything that is foreign to the Gospel.
This text is perfectly suited to the feast we are celebrating today: Benedictine All Saints' Day, the feast of all those who have sanctified themselves by living according to the Rule of Saint Benedict in the Order of Cîteaux. What is described in this Gospel is the essence of the Benedictine spiritual experience: stability. A stability that is not simply the fact of remaining always in the same place, but that consists in a constant effort to remain in God, to make Him our dwelling place, so that He Himself may make His dwelling place in us, as He has promised.
One of the essential aspects of our monastic life is constant listening to the Word of God. Jesus said, ‘If anyone listens to my word, my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him. We might add that the Greek word used in John's Gospel to designate ‘ dwelling “ is the word ” monè ’, which is one of the words used in Greek monastic literature to designate the monastery. So let us abide in the Word of Jesus, so that He and His Father may make of our hearts the ‘ monastery ’ where they will come to dwell.