5th Sunday of Easter
Guadalupe Radio
Little Sisters of the Poor
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.
April 27, 2024
Earthly Connectivity
The digital age is all about connectivity. We are linked one to another as never before by the many channels of communication modern technology provides. But as we know, modern connectivity has its pluses and its minuses. Most of us depend on our ability to communicate quickly with others, and we enjoy staying in close touch with family and friends through technology. We also rely on having information at our fingertips and we like to have ready access to news and entertainment. Paradoxically, modern connectivity also results in disconnects. Absorbed by whatever is on their small screens, many cut themselves off from real relationships and from reality itself. And many connect electronically only to foment discord and division, globally, nationally, locally, as also in our Church and in our families.
Better Connectivity
Long before the digital age dawned, the Lord himself spoke of connectivity, and laid out for us a path to a connectivity better than anything human ingenuity can devise. In fact, he does just that in the Gospel, the parable of the vine and branches.
What a beautiful image, at once simple and profound. It portrays our connection to God the Father, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. It also shows how we are connected to one another in the Church. If you don’t mind, let me unwind the meaning of this image just a bit: God the Father and God the Son are united in love from all eternity and the bond of love between them is the Holy Spirit. This is, so to speak, the “natural” union of life and love that is the Trinity, Three Persons in one God, dwelling in the fullness of wisdom, love, and glory. God’s Son came into the world, assuming our humanity so that we could participate in the love and divine glory he shared from all eternity with his Father, calling us to be the adopted sons and daughters of the Father. So divine life and love flows from the Father to the Son in the Holy Spirit, and by receiving the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, we are connected to Christ as branches are joined to the vine.
This means that our relationship with Christ is neither distant nor casual but a very intimate, beautiful relationship. Our Savior came among us, dying on the cross and rising from the dead, so that all that separates us from God & from one another would be overcome, so that we would participate, share in, God’s own life and love, partially now and fully later on, when we are among the redeemed in heaven. To sum up in the words of an ancient author (Blessed Isaac of Stella):
“The Son of God is one with God by nature.
The Son of Man is one with him in his person.
We, his body, are one with him sacramentally.”
Thus we are joined to Christ as the vine is joined to the branches.
What This Means
Lest we think that this beautiful image results solely in a dry doctrinal formula without bearing on our lives, let us reflect on what it should really mean to us as members of the Church. It means first and foremost that we belong to Christ, that the Risen Lord claimed us as his own in Baptism, forgives our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and most of all, nourishes our bodies and souls with his Eucharistic food.
But let me say more about that! The image of the vine and branches is intensely eucharistic, for it describes how Jesus’ Body, broken for our salvation, and his Blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins is our lifeblood. “Without me, Jesus said, you can do nothing!” Without his life coursing through our body and soul, we become a lifeless branch, a branch that bears no fruit. But when Christ’s saving grace, sourced in the Eucharist, streams into us, we find ourselves on the road of discipleship and holiness, and experience every day, amid the problems and storms of life, new hope, new strength, greater virtue, deeper joy.
To be sure, Christ connects us to his Father in the love of the Spirit. To be sure, we belong to Christ and belonging to Christ, we belong to God. Yet the connectivity Christ offers us extends further. For if we are one with Christ, we are members of Christ, members of his Body, and that means that we belong to one another as members of the Church. For in the Church we are connected, not merely electronically or morally or legally – but eucharistically. This means that in the life of the Church we must care about one another, share a common faith, a common mission, and show love for one another. St. Clement, a pope who served very early in the Church’s life, put it this way:
“Let us preserve the unity of the body that we form in Christ Jesus,
and let everyone give his neighbor the deference . . . .
Let the strong care for the weak and the weak for the strong.
Let the wealthy assist the poor and poor man thank God
for giving him someone to supply his needs . . . .”
Connectivity and Witness
Because we belong to one another in Christ Jesus, we also need to communicate with one another and to knit bonds of love across cultures and generations. This evening, I will be participating in a dinner at Catholic University supporting Guadalupe Radio and honoring the Little Sisters of the Poor. Both assist in strengthening the ties that binds us together in the Church; both help the vine that is Christ joined to his Church to grow stronger. Guadalupe Radio does this by announcing the Good News on the airwaves, in ways that are relatable and easy to understand. The Little Sisters do this by their love for the poor and the elderly and by their wonderful capacity to bring together the young and old, the strong and the weak, the poor and those blessed by material goods.
I mention them, not only because of the event that will soon take place, but because our connectivity with the Lord, as branches to a vine, requires, on our part, “a deliberate act of the will”, in a word, we must want it! By willing it, we “give God permission” to unite us to himself and one another by means of his abundant graces flowing from him to us through the Church. In a word, you and I have to decide how, when, and where we will allow the Lord to take us to himself and make us a part of his People. This surely happens through prayer and the sacraments, but it also happens when we decide to engage in ministries of evangelization and service, ministries that express the fact that we belong to one another in Christ Jesus. May we draw our life and joy as branches of the Vine who is Christ living and reigning with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.