5th Sunday of Easter, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: Christ: the best connection for bearing good fruits
Reading: Acts 9:26–31; 1Jn 3:18–24; Jn 15:1–8
The Church has two important questions for us this Sunday. The first is: “do you want your life to bear fruits of love, peace, forgiveness, charity, kindness, holiness and mercy?” Then, the second is: “do you want your family to be the abode of love, peace, and harmony?” If the answer is yes, then, the Church would like to show you the origin of these wonderful fruits that could turn homes and lives into a paradise.
In the readings of today, the Church showed us that the origin or the source of these fruits is Jesus, and that these fruits can only be nurtured when we abide in Him, that is, when we live our lives in communion with Him.
One of the problems of our world is that many people who want their lives or families to reflect the fruits of love, peace, harmony, charity, kindness, holiness and mercy seek them from the wrong places/sources: they search for them from sources devoid of the values of Jesus, sources that do not draw their strength and inspiration from Jesus, sources that have cut themselves off from Jesus. Some of these sources include social media influencers, pop stars, and other celebrities. This could explain why many relationships, families and communities are constantly soaked in disagreement, quarrels, hatred, wicked acts, envy, intolerance, immorality, greed, revenge and anger.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus said He is the vine and we are the branches, and that just as the branch of the vine cannot bear fruits by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can we bear fruit unless we abide in Him. He said if we cut off from him, we can do nothing, we can bear no fruit.
Therefore, dear friends, only the communities and families that are connected to Jesus and his teachings can bear fruits of love, peace, and unity. It is only the life that is connected to Jesus that can reflect the fruits of love, kindness, mercy, humility, goodness and self-control. When families and communities are disconnected from Christ, their relationships will be tainted by quarrels, hatred, wickedness, revenge, lack of trust, crisis, injustice and oppression, and intolerance. When individual lives are disconnected/detached from Christ and his teachings, envy, anger, hatred, lust, arrogance, thirst for evil, and frustration will set in.
Many people in our world have lost this connection to Jesus, because they think they can move on without Jesus in their lives, and that is why there is high rate of frustration, intolerance, homicide, suicide, revenge and war in our world. Many families have lost this connection to Christ, and that is why many families no longer withstand crisis. Many young boys and girls have lost this connection to Christ, they have rather firmly connected themselves to hip hop stars, social media influencers, and other celebrities both online and offline, learning how to live their lives from them. This explains why many young people suffer instability in relationships; their loss of connection from the source of the values that sustain relationships, which is Christ, is the root of their woes. Christ is the source of the values of tolerance, sacrificial love, understanding and forgiveness which help relationships to thrive.
In today’s second reading, John explains that it is only when we remain united with Christ by putting our Faith in him and drawing our spiritual strength from him that we will be able to obey God’s commandments, especially the commandment of love, loving one another as Jesus commanded us.
The first reading told us what became of the life of Saul after he connected himself to Christ. Before he met Jesus, the life of Saul was that of killing and persecuting of Christians. But when he met Jesus, and became part of the branches of Jesus, his life began to bear the fruits of love and testimony for the risen Christ.
Believe me, dearest friends, it is very difficult to live a life that is full of joy, happiness, peace, love, patience, kindness, humility, goodness, hope and self-control without the presence of Christ and the guidance of his teachings, that is to say, without this connection to Christ. It is absolutely difficult to conquer envy, anger, hatred, lust, arrogance, thirst for evil, pretence and frustration, unnecessary disagreement and quarrels without the grace of Christ and the guidance or inspiration of his teachings.
Let us abide in Christ so that our lives will continue to bear good fruits.
Fr Isaac Chima