Wednesday of the
Fifth Week of Easter
(Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8)
In one of her novels Ann Tyler writes of a man commenting
on a sign in a grocery store. The sign
reads, “Vine Grown Tomatoes,” and draws the remark: “So what that tomatoes are
grown on a vine? Where else can they
grow? What’s important is that they are
vine ripened.” Jesus says something very
similar in today’s gospel.
Jesus is telling his disciples that they must stay close
to him if they are to meet their objectives.
This applies to every legitimate thing that they do. Whether they raise a family, start a
business, or preach the gospel, they have to follow Jesus’ commands. If they do not -- if they want to be served
more than to serve, if they have contempt rather than love for one another –
their enterprise is sure to encounter significant problems.
At times Jesus seems remote. We do not think he cares about us or we think
that we don’t really need him. Yet he
remains, as St. Augustine said, closer to us than we are to ourselves. We stay close to Jesus by both following his
ways and praying for his assistance.
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