Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter - John
15:1-8-11
Today we hear the familiar passage of the vine and the
branches. Jesus tells us that He is the true vine and God, His Father, is the
vine grower. Jesus says that God cuts off every branch that does not bear
fruit. As for the branches that are bearing fruit, God prunes them so they will
produce even more fruit.
Being pruned is not a comfortable process for human beings;
however, we all have been pruned at times in our lives. It may have been through
a difficult time in your family, a serious illness or the loss of a job,
financial problems or the loss of status. Pruning in and of itself is painful
and difficult. In the process of being pruned, we may lose parts of ourselves
that we don’t want to let go of. Yet the purpose of pruning is to enable new life
to grow. We all know this is true. However, we most often do not like the pain
or loss that is an intrinsic part of the process of being pruned.
Take a moment and remember a time in your life when you
experienced being pruned. It may have been the loss of a job, an illness in
your family, the loss of someone you loved, either to death or divorce or
separation, or the loss of esteem. How have you been pruned? Take a moment and
remember that time.
How did this experience of being pruned affect you? Did it make
you examine your life, your faith, your trust in others, or perhaps even your
trust in God? How did you react to the pruning: with trust, anger,
disillusionment, or hope? Did you remain close to God during this time or did
you distance yourself from God? Did you blame God for allowing this to happen
to you?
Pruning can be extremely painful. However, do we trust that
new life and growth will emerge with time? God does not deliberately prune us.
Life prunes us. We have a choice: we can blame God and distance ourselves from
God or we can strive to trust that God is with us. However, this is not easy
when life is “hell.” However, if we do not stay connected to God or Jesus, we
truly will be lost!
As always, we have a choice: to trust that God is with us
and believe that in time, there will be “good” that will emerge from this
pruning. Are we willing to trust God? Today may we pray for one another to
trust and believe that God is at work in us, even if we don’t feel it or see
any of its fruits. Wondrous gifts can come from the most horrible times in our
lives if we are open to receiving them!
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