Sunday, May 2, 2021: Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Constantly Enabled”

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22:25-31

1 John 4:7-16

John 15:1-8

Bishop Ariel P. Santos

Jesus Christ is not just a moral figure 2000 years removed from us. We are connected to Him. The metaphor that He used in the gospel today is: He is the vine; we are the branches. Branches derive their life from the vine. They cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. We are not called not merely to imitate Jesus Christ but we are to participate in His life otherwise we don’t have life.

The Incarnation made Jesus Christ one with humanity. He was made man and He will be forever be man as He is God. He is connected to our humanity and He made Himself one with us. Christ is the Head; we are the members of His body. We are organically linked to Him and we cannot get away from this reality. In Him, we live, we move and have our being. He is our lifeblood.

Hebrews 1:3 says, “He upholds all things, He sustains all things, and He holds all things together by the power of His command.” We cannot be apart from Him and expect to continue to live. What God has joined together no man can separate. We can’t get away from this truth.

Quoting an anonymous 4th century Holy Saturday homily, Jesus says, “Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.”

We are members of Christ and He made this happen. We cannot be separated, but we can live as if we are not linked to Him or we’re not members of body or as branches of the tree. The prodigal son was forever the son of the father but he did not act as one and he ran out of money and found himself below the level of the pigs. This is an illustration of us separating from our Father, the Vine.

If we do not abide, not only will we have no fruit, but we will wither and dry up. Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches,” not branch. We are united to the Head of the Body and we are united with the other members of the Body. We are not just connected to Christ but also to one another. All of us form only one Person and we cannot be separated. Christ is in us; we are in Him.

Abiding in Jesus is spiritual and mystical but it is also particular, definable and tangible. It is practical and not vague or ethereal. In the Book of Acts, the early Church were one. They continued in the Apostles teaching, in fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers. There is active participation in the Body of Christ in unity and in love. We can be actively involved in the Church, and yet not have love and this is incomplete.

In Psalm 133, it starts with, “Behold and how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” Where is this? In Zion, which is the divinely ordained place that we are to be in and to actively participate. Jesus said in John 6, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me.” This is one major way of abiding in the Vine. It is not just a mystical relationship with Christ. We can’t say, “I don’t have to be friends with my brothers and sisters in the Church. I just need to be in my prayer closet and pray to Jesus.” Jesus says, “He who eats My flesh,” and this is in the Eucharist. We abide in Him in the Eucharist and He abides in us, and this happens in the Zion, in the Church, the divinely instituted Body of Christ.

In fellowship with our brethren, John said that, “By this we know that we abide in God and He abides in us if we love for one another.” This is in fellowship and in communion with one another and with Him. We are one Body. We cannot be individualistic. We cannot be autonomous - autos (self); nomos (law or rule). Autonomous is “ruling myself – my life; my will; my way” that leads to death. One line of the song entitled “Spirit of God Within Me” goes, “Spirit of God let within me possess my hands and my heart... Break through the bonds of self-concern that seeks to stand apart.” We need to break through being apart from God and from others. On the other hand, there is the “theonomous” which means ruled by God’s law. We are submitted to His will that leads to life.

There is a story of a parish priest who went to visit his parishioner who haven’t been to Church for a while. The parishioner opened the door for the priest, and they went to the living room and sat by the fireplace. The priest did not say a word. He took one of the logs and separated it from the rest. They watched the fire and the fire of the one log that was separated was slowly extinguished. The priest stood up and said goodbye to the parishioner. The parishioner said, “Thank you, Father, for the fiery sermon.” He understood the message: if we separate ourselves from God’s divinely instituted Body, then, we wither. Apart from Him and His Body, we cannot do anything and we will dry up eventually. If we abide in Him, in the community and in fellowship, in unity, and in love in God’s divinely ordained place, there the Lord commands the blessing, and this is life forever.

If we somehow say that there is something wrong with the branch or the vine, or the place that God led us to be part of, we have the Vine-dresser. Jesus says, “I am the Vine; the Father is the Vine-dresser.” The Vine-dresser takes care of the tree. Our task, as the branches, are to abide and not to be the Vinedresser because we don’t know as much as He is. We leave to Him to take care of the vine and our task is to abide; not to try to fix the wrong and take the responsibility of the Vinedresser. We are linked to Christ and His Body.

Understand that at Baptism, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and we are marked as Christ’s own forever! We don’t own our lives to be autonomous. Our baptism is our course and we made vows. Christ owns us, and our life is now an instrument through which He makes Himself evident and manifest to the world. We are His instruments; we are His extension. Christ lives in us so He can live through us.

In Galatians 2:20, Jesus says that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. The life that we live now is for the Son of God, not for ourselves. Christ wants to live in us and through us. He wants to possess us. We watch sci-fi movies and we see the evil spirit or an alien possess a human body and does what he wants to do – to spread their kind on earth. Christ in us, we are Spirit – possessed! The Spirit of God within us possess our human frame, our thoughts, our minds, our hands and heart – this life of ours. Christ died for us to give us eternal life. He did not come to control our lives and to use us to satisfy His ego, but to give us eternal life.

In 2 Corinthians 5:15, St. Paul says, “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Eternal life is living not for ourselves but for Him. In verse 14, St. Paul said, “The love of Christ controls us.” Christ living in us would minister to the least, the lost and the lonely, the sick and the needy because He is love. Our fruit is not for us, but for the benefit of others. Pope Francis says that a tree bears fruit not so that it can eat it, but so that others can eat the fruit. This is how we were built and designed. When we do this, we find joy and fulfillment.

God is love and love is the intention for the good of others. He makes us bear fruit so that His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be full. This is the heart of God. This is the divine nature that we are partakers of and this is the way it is in the kingdom our God.