Connected to our Source

“Remain in me as I remain in you” (John 15:4). As we walk through parks or even around the properties where we live, invariably we see branches broken off trees. Their leaves quickly fade. The branch dies. It no longer is capable of bearing fruit or fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.

Like branches on trees, we, too, are connected to Someone and Something bigger than ourselves, to all of creation, to everything that moves and breathes and has being from the Creator of all. “For by him (Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16). Apart from Christ, from God, we are incapable of accomplishing the good for which we were created. “Whoever remains in me,” Christ tells us in today’s Gospel(John 15: 1-8), and I in him/her will bear much (emphasis mine) fruit, because without me you can do nothing. The things we do without Christ, disconnected from God, self (our true self) and others in love is not life-giving, not community building, is not of God. Disconnected, we spread discontent, confusion, chaos and we deepen our emptiness, blow out “smoldering wicks” (Is 42:3) stamp out “budding seedlings,” crush broken spirits and, “yes,” bring death. Do I want to live isolated from Christ, the Source of my Being? Or do I want to stay connected through the Scriptures, the Eucharist, through striving to love others as God loves me,by showing compassion towards others as God shows compassion toward me?