{"id":8909,"date":"2015-05-03T09:37:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T13:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/?p=8909"},"modified":"2015-05-03T09:37:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T13:37:02","slug":"becoming-fruitful-branches-of-christ-the-vine-fifth-sunday-of-easter-b-may-3-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/becoming-fruitful-branches-of-christ-the-vine-fifth-sunday-of-easter-b-may-3-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming Fruitful Branches of Christ the Vine, Fifth Sunday of Easter (B), May 3, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr. Roger J. Landry
\nChurch of the Holy Family, New York, NY
\nFifth Sunday of Easter, Year B
\nMay 3, 2015
\nActs 9:26-31, Ps 22, 1 John3:18-24, John 15:1-8<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To listen to an audio homily of today’s Gospel, please click below:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The following text guided the homily:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Branches Extending from the Sanctuary to the World<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday the eyes of the Catholic world were on the North American College in Rome, my alma mater, the seminary training priests in the heart of the Church to serve in U.S. Dioceses, as Pope Francis went to celebrate Mass during a day of study on the life of Fr. Junipero Serra, the great 18th<\/sup> century Franciscan missionary of California whom Pope Francis will beatify in Washington, DC, this Fall. The seminary is bursting at the seams with quality men from all across the country who are a great source of hope for the future of the Church in the United States. It was very moving for me to see the Holy Father celebrating Mass at the same altar and preaching in the same pulpit where I would celebrate and preach my first year as a priest. It was also an opportunity for the Catholic world, through photos and videos, to see the beauty of the chapel that has nourished the vocations of so many thousands of American priests since it was built in 1953.<\/p>\n

So rich in art and symbolism, the Chapel features behind the altar an enormous, exquisite mosaic of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, to whom the Chapel as well as the United States is dedicated. It has evocative Stations of the Cross made by the most famous Italian bronze sculptor of the twentieth century. It has beautiful murals of the Joyful mysteries as well as mysteries of Christ\u2019s own priestly ministry. It has bas<\/em> reliefs of the \u201ceight\u201d sacraments, with the eighth one being \u201cpreaching,\u201d by which the words of Christ are made actual and efficacious in the lives of believers. It has an organ that once was the greatest in Rome. But while the eyes of most first-time visitors to the Chapel heads look up and around with wonder, the most important symbolic imagery of all remains at their feet. When I give tours of the chapel to visitors, I ask them to look on what they\u2019re standing to see if they can figure out what message it is sending. They think, at first, it\u2019s a trick question, because all they see is polished marble, some dark (reddish purple, I believe, although I\u2019m color-blind and am going off the memory of what others have told me) and some lighter and brighter. They notice that it seems to fall into an interweaving pattern throughout the main body of the chapel where the pews are, and then they notice that the sanctuary, where the altar is located and all the priests concelebrate is totally in dark marble. After several guesses, they generally give up. That\u2019s when I give them the hint, \u201cThink about the Gospel of John, Chapter 15.\u201d If there\u2019s a Bible reader in the group of pilgrims, the person normally speaks up and says, \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be the Vine and the Branches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The floor of the North American College is meant to illustrate what the Church is and how the Church bears fruit. Everything starts from Christ in the sanctuary, from his gift of himself of his body and blood. But then it flows from Christ, the head of the Church, into his entire mystical body. And when we abide in him, then we are able to bear much fruit in the world together with him. That\u2019s the source of the North American College\u2019s vitality. That\u2019s the source of any seminary\u2019s vitality. That\u2019s the sole source of the Church\u2019s fruitfulness. That’s the secret to ensure that our life is not wasted but in fact makes a great difference for the coming of God’s kingdom.<\/p>\n

God’s Vine<\/b><\/p>\n

As Jesus tells us today in the Gospel, he and the Church exist together as Vine and Branches. This image of the fruitful union of God and his people was foretold throughout the Old Testament. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the prophets compared Israel to a vine. Psalm 80 said, \u201cYou brought a vine out of Egypt, driving away the nations and planting it. You cleared the ground; it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered by its shadow, the cedars of God by its branches. It sent out boughs as far as the sea, shoots as far as the river\u201d (Ps 80: 9-12). Isaiah declared, \u201cThe vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel\u201d (Is 5:7). Hosea added, \u201cIsrael is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit\u201d (Hos 10:1). All of this was depicted visually in a stunning golden relief of a vine, with clusters of grapes as big as adults, running around the outside walls of the Temple of Jerusalem. The Church is the fulfillment of this image. The temple stands for God and when the people in faith attach themselves to God, they become a luxuriant vine stretching out its branches and bearing fruit even into the desert. Jesus was probably calling upon his apostles\u2019 obvious knowledge of this golden sculpture as he was describing the image of the Vine and Branches on Holy Thursday evening, because they likely would have seen the gilded vine as they visited the temple earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

The problem, we know from our knowledge of Sacred Scripture, is that Israel as a whole didn\u2019t stay attached to God in this way. Even though, as Isaiah said, God had \u201cspaded [the vineyard of Israel], cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines,\u201d even though he had \u201cwithin it built a watchtower and hewed out a wine press,\u2026\u00a0he looked for the crop of grapes, but all it yielded was wild grapes.\u201d God asked, \u201cWhat more was there to do my for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes.\u201d He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded only wild ones (Is 5:2). It didn\u2019t bear good fruit, because it had detached itself from God through sin. Jesus pointed this out in one of his strongest parables, in which, after using the very images Isaiah described, he said that he sent servants to the tenants to whom he had leased this rich vineyard to bring to him a portion of the crop, but they took and beat servants sending them back empty handed, then they wounded and treated another shamefully, and killed others. Finally he sent his Son to them, but they murdered him too in order to try to steal the inheritance (Mk 12:1-11). This was referring to salvation history and to the way Israel treated the prophets God sent to them and treated even Jesus himself. God looked to Israel to bear good fruit \u2014 which are deeds of love in union with God \u2014 but the only harvest that was yielded was the wild fruit of a wild life, rejecting God\u2019s prophets, God\u2019s word, God\u2019s love, God\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

God’s Incredible Trust in Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus says at the beginning of the Gospel today, \u201cI am the true vine.\u201d By doing so, he contrasted himself with the unfaithfulness of those who had failed to produce the harvest of love God wants in the world. He had come to replant the vine, to become the new temple, to make possible our bearing good fruit. And in the great mystery of today\u2019s Gospel and salvation history, God makes the fruit he bears dependent on our being fruitful branches. A vine can\u2019t bear fruit without branches<\/em>. The stem bears only branches, but it\u2019s the branches that bear fruit. For God to bear his fruit in the world, in other words, he depends on us, to remain attached to him and to bear good fruit. Otherwise the great gift of his salvation, his love, won\u2019t be seen in the world, people won\u2019t be saved, the sap of his love will be wasted. Jesus wants to bear fruit in you and me. He wants his love to flow through you and me and through the Church. He wants us to bear not wild grapes that are good for nothing, but fruit that will last to eternal life. The Church exists as branches on Christ the Vine precisely to bear this abundant harvest of the fruit of love.<\/p>\n

The Secret to Bearing Fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n

For that to occur, Jesus says, we must abide in him. Whether we bear good fruit or not totally depends on whether we remain in him or not, whether we live in loving union with him. Jesus had said elsewhere, \u201cEvery good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit\u201d (Mt 7:17-19). The key for us is not to worry so much about the fruit as to worry about remaining attached to Jesus the Good Tree. In today\u2019s Gospel points to how we will bear fruit through remaining attached to him. \u201cAbide in me, as I abide in you.\u00a0 Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.\u201d\u00a0 When we do, he promises us, then we will bear not just a little fruit, but \u201cmuch fruit.\u201d Just think about the saints who bore great fruit not because of human talents but because they gave God permission. Look at the early Church, as we do every Easter season, how much fruit a bunch of fisherman, tax collectors and relative nobodies bore because they were united to God and he worked through them. As the Acts of the Apostles tells us today in the first reading, the Church continued to grow throughout Judea, Galilee, Samaria, even Antioch, because the Holy Spirit was uniting them to God and they were yielding a great harvest. At the end of the Gospel today, Jesus says that we become his disciples only when we bear much fruit to the Father\u2019s glory. We become disciples not by merely being baptized, not merely by coming to Mass, not just by not committing serious sins, but by bearing fruit \u2014\u00a0more specifically \u201cmuch\u201d fruit. He has given us this vocation to bear fruit, saying to us later on in this same chapter of the Gospel, \u201cIt was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last.\u201d<\/p>\n

To bear fruit, Jesus tells us, we must abide in him. To abide in him is far more than a wish to be in communion with him. It has many practical consequences that we see elsewhere in the Gospel. We can focus briefly on five things we need to do truly to abide in Jesus.<\/p>\n

Abiding in Him through Keeping\u00a0His Commandments<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, to abide in him, we must keep His Commandments.<\/p>\n

He tells us in the continuation of today\u2019s Gospel passage, \u201cIf you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father\u2019s commandments and abide in his love\u201d (Jn 15:10). St. John\u2019s in today\u2019s epistle said, \u201cAll who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them\u201d (1 John 3:24). He also cautions us against thinking we are abiding in Jesus when we really aren\u2019t. \u201cWhoever says, \u201cI abide in him,\u201d ought to walk just as he walked.\u201d<\/p>\n

To walk as Jesus walked, to put the faith into action as he did, means to follow him on the path of self-sacrificial love. That\u2019s why, later on in this Chapter of the Vine and the Branches, Jesus says to us, \u201cLove one another as I have loved you.\u201d We\u2019re not remaining in the Vine unless we\u2019re loving, and loving means not just having nice sympathetic feelings for others, but sacrificing ourselves for others. St. John tells us today, \u201cHow does God\u2019s love abide in anyone who has the world\u2019s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action\u201d (1 John 3:17). He tells us \u201cby this we know love,\u201d that just as \u201cJesus laid down his life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.\u201d (1 John 3:15). He tells us later in his first letter, \u201cIf anyone says, \u2018I love God,\u201d and hates his brother he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen\u201d (1 John 4:20). We can\u2019t love God unless we love others. We\u2019re not abiding in his love unless we\u2019re loving others, sacrificing for others, forgiving others.. As Dorothy Day, a fruitful branch of Christ\u2019s vine here in New York once said, \u201cWe love the Lord to the extent that we love the person we like the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re abiding in the Lord, we will be as generous in sacrificing what we have for those who have much less. If we\u2019re stingy following Jesus\u2019 command to love others as he has loved us, if we try to ignore those in need or just give the minimum so that we can keep a certain human respect, it could very well be a sign of how little we are abiding in the Lord and in his love, and why we might be bearing little fruit, no fruit, or bad fruit.<\/p>\n

Abiding in Him through Hearing and Doing Jesus’ Word<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second, to abide in Jesus, we must listen to his word.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet what you heard from the beginning abide in you,\u201d St. John tells us. \u201cIf what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father\u201d (1 John 2:24).<\/p>\n

We must be men and women, boys and girls, who abide in the Word of God, who let what God has said echo within us. We must act on what Jesus said to the devil, \u201cMan does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God\u201d (Mt 4:4). We must live by the principle St. Peter and the apostles lived by: \u201cLord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life\u201d (Jn 6:68). If we don\u2019t know the word of God, if our Bibles just take up space on our bookshelves, if we don\u2019t seek to become living commentaries on what God has taught us, then we will bear little fruit.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve begun the month of May dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the context of bearing fruit based on the Word of God, I can\u2019t forget the saying of the great fourth century St. Ambrose that Pope Benedict cited in his exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church back in 2010: \u201cAs we contemplate in the Mother of God a life totally shaped by the word, we realize that we too are called to enter into the mystery of faith, whereby Christ comes to dwell in our lives. Every Christian believer, Saint Ambrose reminds us, in some way interiorly conceives and gives birth to the word of God: even though there is only one Mother of Christ in the flesh, in the faith Christ is the progeny of us all. Thus, what took place for Mary can daily take place in each of us, in the hearing of the word and in the celebration of the sacraments.\u201d Just like Mary, we\u2019re called to conceive the Word of God within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. The word is supposed to grow. We\u2019re supposed to be pregnant with the Word of God.\u201d And then, finally, it has grown so much that we have to give it to the light. To abide in the Lord, we must abide in the Word. It must be able to be said of us what was said of Mary, that the Lord is with us, that we are blessed because we believed that what the Lord said to us would be fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Abiding in Him Through Cooperating with the Father’s Pruning Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Third, to abide in Jesus, we must be pruned by God the Father through the Word of God<\/p>\n

Jesus says that the Father \u201ctakes 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.\u201d The Word of God helps us to cut off from our lives whatever won\u2019t bear fruit in God. It helps us to set our priorities straight. It helps us, for example, to cut out all the time we waste watching television or in other distractions, so that we use our gift of time, not for selfish pursuits, not for worthless diversions, but for God and in love of others. Many times we can do the pruning ourselves, so that our energies can go exclusively into bearing fruit. But sometimes, when we don\u2019t do so, God the Father may out of love prune us himself, taking away certain things that we might desire so that we may begin to grow in the way God really wants us to grow. To abide in Jesus means to give God permission to do this pruning and to pray about how he wants us to be pruned, every day, beginning now.<\/p>\n

Abiding in Him through\u00a0Helping Others to Come to Abide in Him<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fourth, to abide in him, we must spread the faith<\/p>\n

St. John writes, \u201cGod abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.\u201d (1John 4:15).<\/p>\n

If God really abides in us and we in him, then we can\u2019t help but spread love of him, as naturally as a good apple tree bears good apples. We can\u2019t keep to ourselves the joy of living the faith, the happiness that comes from having Christ live within.<\/p>\n

Abiding in Him through\u00a0a Truly Eucharistic Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lastly, to abide in him, we must live a truly Eucharistic life. Jesus told us in his famous Bread of Life discourse in St. John\u2019s Gospel, \u201cThose who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them\u201d (Jn 6:56). That begins with hungering for Jesus in Holy Communion and receiving him worthily. It involves wanting a loving communion with others. And it flourishes in wanting to bear fruit and \u201cdo this in memory of him,\u201d to give our body and blood out of love for him and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Francis this morning in his Regina Caeli<\/em> meditation in St. Peter\u2019s Square summarized the Gospel by saying, \u201cJesus is the vine, and through Him \u2013 like the sap in the tree \u2013 the very love of God, the Holy Spirit passes to the branches. Look: we are the branches, and through this parable, Jesus wants us to make us understand the importance of remaining united to him. The branches are not self-sufficient, but depend totally on the vine, in which is found the source of their life. So it is with us Christians. Grafted by Baptism in Christ, we have freely received from Him the gift of new life; and thanks to the Church we are able to remain in vital communion with Christ. We must remain faithful to [our] Baptism, and grow in intimacy with the Lord through prayer, listening and docility to His Word, participation in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation. If one is intimately united to Jesus, he enjoys the gifts of the Holy Spirit\u00a0\u2026 and consequently does so much good for the neighbor and the society, like a true Christian. In fact, one is recognized as a true Christian by this attitude, as a tree is recognized by its fruit. The fruits of this profound union with Christ are wonderful: our whole person is transformed by the grace of the Spirit: [our] soul, understanding, will, affections, and even [our] body, because we are united body and soul. We receive a new way of being, the life of Christ becomes our own: we are able to think like Him, to act like Him, to see the world and the things in it with the eyes of Jesus. And so we are able to love our brothers, beginning with the poorest and those who suffer the most, with His heart, and so bear fruits of goodness, of charity, and of peace in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mass is the living summary of this Gospel of the vine and the branches. The whole world is a continuation of the Chapel of the North American College, beginning with Christ in the sanctuary and stretching out into the pews, and from the pews, in the living branches that stretch forth its boughs to the rivers, seas, mountains, street corners, homes, schools, ball fields, workplaces. We consecrate here the \u201cfruit of the vine,\u201d the true vine squeezed out during the Passion of the Lord on the Cross, but we also consecrate the \u201cwork of human hands,\u201d who are the branches. God the Father returns this to us as our \u201cspiritual drink\u201d that we offer to him under the appearance of wine. In the Eucharist, the fruit that we give with Christ, the fruit of the vine and the branches, reaches its climax. If we live this Eucharist, if we keep this communion with the Lord, if we live this loving union, that we will bear fruit that will last until eternal life. That’s the reason why God created us and we’re still alive. May we receive all the help he will give us today so that we may bear good fruit and others, in seeing those good deeds, may glorify our Father in heaven here on earth and come with us, we pray, to glorify him forever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The readings for today’s Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Reading 1\u00a0ACTS 9:26-31<\/a><\/h4>\n
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,
\nbut they were all afraid of him,
\nnot believing that he was a disciple.
\nThen Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles,
\nand he reported to them how he had seen the Lord,
\nand that he had spoken to him,
\nand how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
\nHe moved about freely with them in Jerusalem,
\nand spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.
\nHe also spoke and debated with the Hellenists,
\nbut they tried to kill him.
\nAnd when the brothers learned of this,
\nthey took him down to Caesarea
\nand sent him on his way to Tarsus.The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.
\nIt was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
\nand with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Responsorial Psalm\u00a0PS 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32<\/a><\/h4>\n
R. (26a)\u00a0I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nI will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
\nThe lowly shall eat their fill;
\nthey who seek the LORD shall praise him:
\n\u201cMay your hearts live forever!\u201d
\nR.\u00a0I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nAll the ends of the earth
\nshall remember and turn to the LORD;
\nall the families of the nations
\nshall bow down before him.
\nR.\u00a0I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nTo him alone shall bow down
\nall who sleep in the earth;
\nbefore him shall bend
\nall who go down into the dust.
\nR.\u00a0I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nAnd to him my soul shall live;
\nmy descendants shall serve him.
\nLet the coming generation be told of the LORD
\nthat they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
\nthe justice he has shown.
\nR.\u00a0I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Reading 2\u00a01 JN 3:18-24<\/a><\/h4>\n
Children, let us love not in word or speech
\nbut in deed and truth.
\nNow this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
\nand reassure our hearts before him
\nin whatever our hearts condemn,
\nfor God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
\nBeloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
\nwe have confidence in God
\nand receive from him whatever we ask,
\nbecause we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
\nAnd his commandment is this:
\nwe should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
\nand love one another just as he commanded us.
\nThose who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
\nand the way we know that he remains in us
\nis from the Spirit he gave us.<\/p>\n

Alleluia\u00a0JN 15:4A, 5B<\/a><\/h4>\n

R.\u00a0Alleluia, alleluia.
\nRemain in me as I remain in you, says the Lord.
\nWhoever remains in me will bear much fruit.
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia, alleluia.<\/p>\n

Gospel\u00a0JN 15:1-8<\/a><\/h4>\n

Jesus said to his disciples:
\n\u201cI am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
\nHe takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
\nand every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
\nYou are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
\nRemain in me, as I remain in you.
\nJust as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
\nunless it remains on the vine,
\nso neither can you unless you remain in me.
\nI am the vine, you are the branches.
\nWhoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
\nbecause without me you can do nothing.
\nAnyone who does not remain in me
\nwill be thrown out like a branch and wither;
\npeople will gather them and throw them into a fire
\nand they will be burned.
\nIf you remain in me and my words remain in you,
\nask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
\nBy this is my Father glorified,
\nthat you bear much fruit and become my disciples.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A photo from Pope Francis’ Mass at the North American College on May 2, 2015, featuring the intercalating colors of marble meant to\u00a0symbolize the parable of the Vine and Branches.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fr. Roger J. Landry Church of the Holy Family, New York, NY Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B May 3, 2015 Acts 9:26-31, Ps 22, 1 John3:18-24, John 15:1-8   To listen to an audio homily of today’s Gospel, please click below:\u00a0   The following text guided the homily:\u00a0   The Branches Extending from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7412,1063,3,7],"tags":[8136,5775,8135,2329,1899,8140,8141,8139,8137,8142,1775,1761,1700,5434,8138,2034,1127,2921,4507,6828,5810],"class_list":["post-8909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-2015","category-audio-homily","category-homily","category-year-b","tag-1-john318-24","tag-abiding-in-the-lord","tag-acts-926-31","tag-commandments","tag-eucharist","tag-hos-101","tag-is-52","tag-is-57","tag-john-151-8","tag-mk-121-11","tag-north-american-college","tag-pope-benedict","tag-pope-francis","tag-ps-22","tag-ps-80-9-12","tag-sacred-scripture","tag-st-ambrose","tag-verbum-domini","tag-vine-and-the-branches","tag-wild-grapes","tag-word-of-god-in-the-life-and-mission-of-the-church"],"yoast_head":"\nBecoming Fruitful Branches of Christ the Vine, Fifth Sunday of Easter (B), May 3, 2015 - Catholic Preaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/becoming-fruitful-branches-of-christ-the-vine-fifth-sunday-of-easter-b-may-3-2015\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Becoming Fruitful Branches of Christ the Vine, Fifth Sunday of Easter (B), May 3, 2015 - Catholic Preaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr. 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