5th Sunday of Easter / The Vine and The Branches

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 3, 2015

“I am the vine, you are the branches.”   It is not uncommon today to hear someone say, ‘I am a very spiritual person, I just don’t have time for religion.”  It is so sad that these people accept the limits of their relationship with God to be centered on emotions only.  “Spirituality is an emotion while Religion is our faith and an obligation.  Spirituality soothes us, Religion calls us to action. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  We understand that the branches get their life from the vine.  We cannot have a true relationship with God if we do not accept Him and His kingdom.  It is as Fr. Mark Murphy states in his recent homily, “People want spirituality but not religion.  They want to be a son or daughter of God but prefer to be an only child.”  Without the vine the branches will die.  Pray that our faith family is strengthened by the vitality and spirit of healthy branches of followers.

-       Deacon Jim