The fruits of the Holy Spirit 聖神的效果

Fifth Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: The fruits of the Holy Spirit 聖神的效果

After resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth to gather 120 dispersed disciples before He returned to the Father in heaven. During that time, He must have enlightened/opened their minds so that they could more fully understand the scriptures and His messages (Luke 24:45). The Church tries to recreate this experience in choosing the gospel readings during the Easter Season. For example, we read of the metaphor of the Good Shepherd and His sheep (John 10:11-18) last week. Today, we read of the metaphor of the True Vine and its branches (15:1-8). Both of them draw our attention to our needs to establish intimate relationships with the risen Lord. That the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down His life for His sheep signifies a one-off sacrifice to redeem the sheep. The metaphor of the True Vine covers another dimension. It signifies an on-going life supporting system comparable to the relationship between a pregnant woman and the foetus in her womb! It is understandable because Jesus told the disciples this parable of the Vine and its branches during the Last Supper in which He establishes two sacraments for us: the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Orders. The context enriches this powerful parable. There is no lack of plants for Jesus to choose from in order to convey this message of the need of abiding in Him. The choice of vine speaks volumes about the importance of Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist among the sacraments!

Human justice demands “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:21). In light of Jesus’ revelation of the merciful Father, the commandments in the book of Deuteronomy can at most be a “water-downed” version of God’s justice. God has spoken through the prophets that He does not want to see anyone perish and that He wants to see them repent and live (Ezekiel 18:32). Don’t forget. Among the books of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy is already a more mature one. Its teachings are closer to those in the New Testament and yet, it still fails to pass the test of “serial killer”. Man can only die once. The life of a serial killer is not able to repay tens or hundreds of people he kills, not to mention thousands and even millions of people a tyrant kills. Thus, it takes the death of the Son of God on the cross to atone for all the sins which all human beings have committed throughout all the ages in the past as well as in the future! The value of Jesus’ death lies in the fact that “No one takes it [Jesus’ life] from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18). That is why resurrection is the foundation stone of Christianity. Not only does His death uphold the “water-downed” justice of God the Father, but His resurrection also guarantees that the Son of God is the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42c) and the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5) and thus the author/source of life. With the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, a new day is dawned when death is no longer the annihilation of life but a portal to eternal life.

The most prominent message in this short passage is “to bear fruit” which appears five times within these eight verses! What does Jesus mean by “remaining in Him to bear much fruit”? Naturally, we tend to quantify the message by counting the number of people baptized in a year, or the number of people attending Sunday masses, or the number of seminarians/priests etc. Alas! This is not the modus operandi of God. He does not count the numbers. For example, He chose 300 Israelites out of 32000 (Judges 7:3) in order to defeat 315000 Midianites (8:10), “lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, ‘My own power saved me.’” (7:2) Obviously, God counts the quality of the hearts instead of the number of the hearts. So, Jesus is not looking for the number of people a Catholic has converted during his or her life time. Indeed, St. Thérèse of Lisieux has never ventured outside her convent and yet, the Church canonized her in 1925 and two years later named her to be the co-patron for missionaries. Therefore, what qualities are Jesus looking for in his disciples?

To look for a clue, let us take a step back. This parable of the True Vine begins with, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower” (John 15:1). We have the Father and the Son. But where is the Holy Spirit? Traditionally, we believe in the Holy Spirit as the love between the Father and the Son. When the Holy Spirit comes to us, He is the Spirit of Truth (14:17, 15:26, 16:13) and the Spirit of Love (Romans 5:5, 15:30). St. Paul teaches that as Christians, we should bear the following characteristics which he calls the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, viz. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23a). All these are also characteristics Jesus shows in His ministry. When we are branches which remain in Him, our words and deeds will show characteristics similar to His because the Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7, 1 John 4:3).

Now, we arrive at a deeper understanding of what Jesus means when He conjures up the images of True Vine and its branches. People will easily misunderstand that we will lose our freedom when we are branches that must be attached to the True Vine. Of course, no parable is able to convey Jesus’ teachings without limitations. In fact, not all bonds are visible. For example the bondage of sin. We do not see sinners connected to the Devil in bondage. We only see the dysfunctions and the inability to love among sinners. Then we know that the Devil is controlling them. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is free like the wind just as Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (3:8). In this verse, Jesus plays with words where in Greek, “wind” and “spirit” is the same word! Therefore, even when we are branches grafted onto the True Vine, we do not lose our freedom. On the contrary, we become free as the Holy Spirit and love the needy and underprivileged appropriately without restrain.

Beloved brethren. Just as the beloved disciple says, “Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Jesus Christ Himself is “the way and the true and the life” (John 14:6). Therefore, in the name of Jesus, let us serve the needy, comfort the sorrowful, give hope to those in despair and bear much fruit. Amen. God bless!

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2021 Reflection
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