John 15:1-8
He who abides in Christ bears much fruit
- What does it mean to remain in Christ?
- What does it mean to bear much fruit?
In the Gospel, Jesus uses the image of the vine to show that in order to bear fruit, a plant must be connected to a root that nourishes it.
To abide in Christ is to be immersed in the nourishment He provides, which can become the source of our "fruit-bearing".
- Fruit - something that will last from my life; something that will withstand the test of death.
- Fruit - not just any fruit, produced in Jesus.
Looking at the allegories of the vine, we might think of baptism as the moment of implantation - of union with the vine, with Christ. But being grafted in is by no means the same as abiding.
For abiding to be effective, there is a need for nourishment and care, expressed first of all in receiving nourishment - the Eucharist, but also in the care of rejecting unhealthy and undesirable elements - the sacrament of Penance.
Confirmation is still to come. It is also a special moment in the building of this relationship called perseverance.
But even that is not enough. Perseverance is more than a few 'point' events. Abiding is in a sense infinite. It is a dynamic process, a kind of ossification.
