This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Jesus gives us the key to bearing fruit for eternity in today’s gospel. Fruit for eternity is nothing more or less than the eternal life of our brothers and sisters; fruit that would not bud and ripen without our contribution.
And what is our contribution? Jesus does not tell us to rush out and conquer the heathen. What is the activity, then, that is key to bearing fruit for eternity?
It is to remain in Him. Far from a passive activity, this is the act of reserving real time to be in conversation with Him every day, and frequent reception of His life in the sacraments. If we receive His life in us in this way on a constant basis, we are joined to Him as our vine; we become His branches that bear fruit.
Branches don’t conjure fruit out of nothing. Nor do they craft it like clay on a potter’s wheel. They simply let the fertile sap of divine life course through them, and the fruit appears from that life in them. Even so, even though it is merely the life of the vine than brings about the fruit, each branch is co-responsible for the fruit, which would not appear in its absence.
“Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Mt. 10:19-20) The Holy Spirit is that divine life coursing through us.
Observe Barnabas in today’s first reading. Saul the persecutor claimed to have converted to Christianity. Everyone suspected a trick. Barnabas simply went to Saul, took charge of him, and brought him into the fold. How did he know to do that? Through some savvy calculation? No, he knew from the Holy Spirit–from the divine life in Him.
It is that same divine life that provides the confidence in our heart of which John speaks in the second reading, confidence to know that we are pleasing to God in spite of our bewildering and discouraging weaknesses, when we are not in sin.
We don’t need to conjure up a Christian mission for ourselves. If we stay firmly united to the vine, that vine itself will provide it for us. The divine life in us is everything.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you want to remain united to Him, the vine, but are very conscious that you are able to fall away in your weakness. Ask Him to take charge of keeping you forever one with Him.
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