KNOWING WE ARE HOME

There is not one moment when we are not in the presence of God.  Yet we might not always be aware of this.  Jesus is the 'true' Vine because he does not forget.  He inhales time and eternity in the same breath.This Sunday's Gospel, (you are pruned already by means of the word I have spoken to you) invites us to take a fuller part, have a heightened sensitivity to and nurture our spiritual self. Our biological life, measured by time, has its own rhythm.  Our awareness of the Sacred can recede if we are not working at it.

The vine dresser knows this, and the pruning we experience is fired by Compassion for us.  He knows there are possibilities for richer and better fruit.

Disciples of Jesus are cleansed by the word He speaks to them.  In other words, he takes whatever is blocking the flow of Life between us and our Abba.  What is cut away frees us and makes us ready for the next step.  He always makes the first move.  Widening horizons.  Transforming everything we see.  But we have to allow this to happen.  To come home to Him as he comes home to us.  Our destiny depends on us taking Him seriously.  If this awareness and action are not present, we stumble through life with many competing agendas.  This is a hard truth.  The image of branches bearing much fruit or withered and burned branches sets out our options.

Native Americans have a great story which sees us like mice, our noses sniffing the earth, arranging and rearranging stuff on the ground.  Something happens which makes us look up and see more than we knew.  This bigger vision forces us to think again.

There is a subtle proverb which says, " Make all your cares into a single care and God will see to all your cares".  If we are abiding in the True Vine, we will be purified.  His Word will create in us a Single Wish. That wish will be to love our Abba and to mediate His Love to the world.  Since this desire is at one with our Abba, it will be achieved.  And we will bear fruit. We will be as we always have been.  Disciples in the making.  It is a never ending journey.