Fifth Sunday of Easter

Our Gospel is taken from John 15: 1-8 where it says Jesus told His disciples that He is the true vine and God the Father is the vine dresser. This declaration of Jesus reminds us of His intimate relationship with His Father. He tells us about Himself but not without telling us about His Father. In other words, we cannot take away or exclude His Father from the story of His life. Without His Father, we cannot therefore have a complete story of Jesus. To go further, Jesus said, "Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." My dear friends, by using such metaphor, Jesus conveys to us that in His relationship with God the Father, He knows and believes that eveything His Father does is always for the good of everybody. His Father assures not only that there must be fruits found in every branch, but there should be more fruits. And if ever a branch does not bear fruit, He has to cut it off. 

My dear friends, let me use an analogy so that we can understand better this relationship of Jesus and His Father. We may say that like any good father of a family, He wishes everything good for His Son as well as to see His Son growing as a good Son. To do this, any good father makes some checking with regard to the quality of his son's friends or companions. If a father would see his son is keeping a bad company, then he would remind him of the ill effects which his bad friends might bring to him. If his friends are good, any good father will take good care of them for the good of his son.

Now, my dear friends, what is significant here in this Gospel is that Jesus said, "You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you." This statement suggests that those who are connected to Jesus are made worthy companions because of what Jesus does to them. In other words, any son who has a friend whom his father does not like, will make some justification in order to keep their friendship intact. In the case of Jesus, He does not make justifications rather He makes His friends fit and qualified to be His companions through His words. Therefore, it is up to His friends now to show some proof that they are indeed worthy companions. There must be some indicators that they are worthy to be called friends. They should produce fruits. 

My dear friends, this Gospel is relevant for us as Catholics who believe in Jesus. We are made worthy to be called His friends through His grace. We are made clean through His sacraments He entrusted to His Church. In Baptism, all our sins are forgiven. In Confirmation and Holy Eucharist, we sustain our cleanliness. In Confession and Extreme Unction, our sins after Baptism are forgiven and make us clean once more. Jesus has done everything for us to be fit and qualified to be with Him. But all these should not end there. We are expected to bear fruits. It means, Jesus has done to make us good as His friends then we must show in our words and actions that we indeed become good. Good works may not be necessary for salvation as some Christians believe, but for us Catholics, good works are fruits and expression of a faithful who is already saved by Jesus. Therefore, if Jesus said, "Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, the Father takes away", this is but necessary for His Father to do. Any person who has received the grace, blessings and the love of God but does not do anything good in this world is ungrateful. And what is the use of doing good to an ungrateful person? It is better to shut him up! In extension, any person who has already been saved by Jesus when He died on the cross has still the chance to go to hell because he has never treasured the gift of salvation through his words and actions.

My dear friends, let me end my homily by sharing to you my experience. In one parish where I was assigned, there was this homosexual, a teen-ager who did not go to mass. He did not even have the time to visit the church. He had this notion that an homosexual is not loved by God. For him, an homosexual is already condemned while he is still alive here on earth. He concluded that the church has no room for an homosexual or gay like him. One day, I had the opportunity to talk to him. I chose him to organize the Ministry of Ushers and Greeters for the parish. This opened his way to the church. But it was not that easy for me to make our parishioners accept him in our midst. It was one Palm Sunday celebration, while he was performing his duty as Usher and Greeter, he was put to shame by a parishioner in front of many people. He hid himself and cried because of this. It was only later that I learned about what happened. So I talked to him. I made him realize that it is only God who can judge us whether we are good or bad. It is not right therefore to say just because he is an homosexual or gay he shall go to hell. Any person will go to hell not because he is a man or she is a woman but because he or she has not done any good though God has been good to him or her. No matter how he is condemned by all, it does not mean that all who condemn him are right and just. Moreover, I let him know that it is Jesus who has made him clean. He must only focus his eyes on Jesus and do what is good. My dear friends, since then until now, this young homosexual has been the catalyst of the parish in attracting many youth to join the ministry. He is only one of the many branches of Jesus, the true vine. How about you? Do you bear much fruits also? It is all up to you.