John 15:1-8
"For apart from Christ you can do nothing."
Chapter 15 of John's gospel clearly teaches who we are in relation to Christ: He is our Lord and our Life, and we are His followers. He is the Vine, and we are the branches. A branch can produce fruit abundantly only if it lives connected to the vine. So it is with our Christian life. If we live in Christ, and He in us, we can produce good works, that will make our life or vocation pleasing to both God and man.
The vine-branches imagery presented in John 15:1-8 was also reflected upon by the French missionary, St. Louis-Marie de Montfort in his book "True Devotion to Mary". In True Devotion #68, he writes:
"...the Holy Spirit compares us to branches of the vine of which Jesus is the stem, and from whom we yield good grapes."
This "good grapes" are our "good works". And our good works, according to Montfort, belong to God, who created us for that very purpose. "Jesus is the sole source and must be the sole end for all our good works".
Although our goal in life is to make our life, person and works fruitful and abundant in all that is good and right (for God, the common good, and our own personal good), there will be times in our life when fruitlessness and barrenness seem to dominate. It is a truth and a fact of life. But the counsel in today's gospel will help us overcome those situations. As long as we call on the Lord for His help, set our heart right, and never depart from Him, then in time, He will make all that we worked hard for produce a good harvest. The key is to remain steadfast with the Lord - to have faith in His Word and thank Him always for His blessings in our prayers and in the celebration of the Sacraments.
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