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In the gospel of St. John 15:1- 11, we read about the True Vine and the living branches. Here our Lord is saying that He is the vine and we are the branches. What is our relationship with Him as living branches in the Vine? Our Lord Jesus is the true Vine and He provides nourishment to us, the branches. Without the Vine we can do nothing. In order to abide in His love, we need to keep His commandments. We must also realize that our complete joy lies in Him and in no other vine.

In John 14:6, He says “I am the way the truth and the life”, yet people today search for life elsewhere. They go to great lengths to look for a way or a truth but it is a false way and a false truth. Thousands of people throughout the centuries before us went through this struggle and came back to Christ and found that He is the only way and the only truth.. There are many examples of this in the history of the church, such as St. Augustine, St. Mary the Egyptian and St. Moses the Black. When they were far away they felt empty, they felt something was missing, there was no connection. When they were connected with The Vine, the true source of nourishment fed them and they didn’t feel the need to go back to their evil ways. All of these people searched for life as they understood it, but all of them without exception, were not fulfilled and knew this was not life but that life was in Christ and in Christ alone.

So it is clear that he who is not connected to the vine is dead because he is cut off from the source of life and nourishment. Such a person only has hope, if he is grafted into the True Vine who is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Only then, can such a person be resurrected from the dead and have life. Our Lord says of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”

Not only is Christ our source of life, but He is our source of nourishment as well. Many people do not have Christ as the source of nourishment and joy. They look to the world in its over kill of materialism. It has become their god, satisfying Christ however gives us a complete healthy meal that totally satisfies us to the extent that we do not have to continue to search for our nourishment in other artificial and fake vines. He satisfies us through His words of life, His words are life. St Peter knew this and says, “Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life.” They are right there in front of us if we just are willing to accept them and let them work inside of us. In Psalm 119, David the prophet says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Christ gives us a different flavor and taste to life. Do we allow the words of Christ to impact and affect our lives as branches in this vine? Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”

Another way in which the Vine nourishes us is through the Divine Eucharist, the liturgy. Every time we attend the church, every time we partake of the body and blood of Christ, we abide in Him and He certainly abides in us. In the gospel of John 6: 53 – 56, our Lord says, “ Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you.” If you have no life in you, it means that you are spiritually dead, that you are a withered branch that has been cut off from the vine. Some people today think that they can become Christians and can practice their Christianity by being at home and praying and just by doing good deeds. But our Lord Jesus Christ proves to us, through His words, that we need to be united to His Body and Blood and to partake of them otherwise there is no life in us. What is the relationship between the Vine and the branches? Christ is the King, the Lord of lords and we are His servants.

St Paul says to us, in 1Timothy, “He who is the blessed and only Potentate or Sovereign One, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. It is also not a relationship of slavery as we are not slaves. St Paul speaks about this in his letter to the Galatians 4:7 and says, “Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ.” So we are no longer called slaves, but sons of God. Also our Lord Himself says in John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” What great meekness and humility on the part of God that He calls us friends and He shares with us this ministry and invites us all to come and work with Him and to serve with Him.

It is also a relationship of fear and that statement may surprise some of you. Too often we rely on our relationship with God and rely on His mercy and compassion and we lose our fear of the Lord and the awe and respect of Him. Solomon in the Old Testament says to us in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” When we have awe and reverence for God in our lives, then wisdom will enter our lives. This is clarified also when Solomon says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil”. We don’t fear God because He will punish us, although He may punish us for our sins or to bring us back to the right path, but we also fear God because we don’t want to do anything against His will, but we want to live according to His commandments.

It is also a relationship that shares in suffering, as it says in Romans 8:17 “And if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Another important point is that without the true Vine we can do nothing and we are useless. Unfortunately many times we want to rely on ourselves, on our own wisdom, strength, and cleverness or on the help of others. If we do this, God will curse us. Jeremiah 17:5 states “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord’.” Our Lord also says “For without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Some think that they can achieve anything with their own wealth and wisdom. They don’t trust in God or thank Him for their possessions. Having possessions in itself is not a sin, but the sin lies in not thanking God especially since we know that these gifts come from Him who is the true vine and the true source of all of our gifts. He who trusts in God will find that God gives him all he wants and much more. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord, For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but her leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

The Vine is our life support in all aspects of our life; He nourishes, protects, teaches and saves us. What are the benefits of being connected to the Vine? He gives us life everlasting as He promised in John 3:16. John 6:40 says “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” He also gives us true joy, hope, peace, wisdom, growth.

Your complete joy in the true vine will lead you to the fruits of the spirit Galatians 5:22-25 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” We want our church to be filled with saints, and people who are filled with the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. May our Lord Jesus Christ, the true vine bless and nourish us, that we may never be cut off from Him, but always abide in His love.