by Fr. Tommy Lane
“Remain in me” said Jesus
in our Gospel today (John 15:4) “Abide in me” (RSV) and “make your
home in me” (JB) are other ways of saying this. How do we remain in
Jesus, abide in Jesus, make our home in Jesus? Earlier in John’s
Gospel, Jesus told us one very important way: “Amen, amen, I say to
you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.” (John 6:53) “Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6:56) The
Eucharist is
the way above all to remain in Jesus and abide in Jesus. The
Eucharist is our spiritual food. “Unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”
(John 6:53) “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me
and I in him.” (John 6:56) Watching Mass online is not really
keeping holy the Lord’s Day if you are able to go to Mass, and you
do not have the Eucharist at home.
We also remain in Jesus and
abide in Jesus by praying
every day. Praying every day helps us branches to remain attached to
Jesus the vine. A contemporary French spiritual writer that I like,
Jacques Philippe, commenting on Pope John Paul’s writings on the
centrality of prayer for our Christian life, wrote:
Another statement of
the Pope’s which I find very true and very important is that prayer
is “the secret of a truly vital Christianity, which has no reason to
fear the future.” Prayer enables us to draw from God a life that is
ever new, to let ourselves be continually reborn and renewed.
Whatever our trials and disappointments, harsh situations, failures,
and faults, prayer makes us rediscover enough strength and hope to
take up our lives again with total confidence in the future. This is
something that is really necessary today! (Jacques Philippe
Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 145)
I always say to
people to pray in the way that suits them. As well as saying set
prayers, such as the Rosary which is a beautiful and powerful prayer
to Our Lady, I also recommend praying in our own words—prayer of the
heart. Talk to Jesus, talk to Our Lady in your own words. That is
very good prayer. Prayer is a conversation between you and God,
between you and Our Lady. Through daily prayer, make your home in
Jesus, abide in Jesus, remain in him.
Jesus said we bear fruit
when we remain attached to him:
Whoever remains in me
and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do
nothing. (John 15:)
What kind of fruit
will we bear when we remain attached to Jesus? I think, in the first
place, we experience the good fruit in our own lives. We experience
a peace and joy and happiness even in the midst of suffering and
trials that otherwise we would not have. We are aware that there is
a lot of anxiety and unhappiness, particularly among young people.
Even though there are more opportunities and conveniences and better
living conditions than ever, we have, it seems to me, more anxiety
and unhappiness than ever. It seems to me, that if people are not
giving time to God, it would be no wonder or surprise that there
should be so much anxiety and unhappiness. If it were the case that
people went to church only for the big occasions and school Masses
and not much otherwise, to me it would not be a wonder or surprise
to have so much anxiety and unhappiness. Jesus said we bear fruit
when we remain attached to him:
Whoever remains in me
and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do
nothing. (John 15:)
I think, in the
first place, we experience this good fruit in our own lives: peace
and joy and happiness.
There is a wound in
society. I think it is wounded because we are moving away from God.
There are attempts all around us to silence the Gospel and shut out
God, but they are foolish attempts because they are attempting to
silence and shut out the very source of our peace, joy, happiness,
and well-being. Such attempts are really creating hell on earth
because hell is the absence of God. Without God, it is no wonder
that there is more and more anxiety and unhappiness. To fix the
wound in society, we need more and more of God. Jesus said:
Whoever remains in me
and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do
nothing. (John 15:)
Again, Jacques
Philippe wrote:
Prayer enables us to draw from God a life that is ever new, to let ourselves be continually reborn and renewed. Whatever our trials and disappointments, harsh situations, failures, and faults, prayer makes us rediscover enough strength and hope to take up our lives again with total confidence in the future. This is something that is really necessary today! (Jacques Philippe Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 145)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Bear fruit: our love is not to be just words
Related Homilies: Remaining in Jesus’ word 2019
Remain in my love 2017
Homilies on the Eucharist Homilies on prayer