Spiritual Pruning (5th Sunday Easter B)

The previous Sunday’s Good Shepherd theme has allowed us to see Christ as our caring leader and companion who is ever ready to sacrifice all for our sake. But today’s image of the vine and branches brings us to an awareness of an even more profound level of relationship between us and the Lord. Christ is not just a leader or a companion, He is our very life.  He is the vine and we, his disciples, are the branches.  This reveals the intimate union we have with Christ and, through him, with the Father.  We share the one and the same Spirit-life with the Risen Lord.  We are so united with him that we cannot live, we cannot do anything fruitful apart from him much as a branch withers and unable to bear fruits when cut off from the vine.

Hence, today’s gospel (Jn 15: 1-8) invites us to remain with the Lord: “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” (v. 4).

Remaining in the Lord means cultivating our intimate relationship with him and nurturing the very life we have with him.  One aspect of the imagery of the vine that suggests the necessity of nurturing this intimacy is the art of pruning. The vine grower, that is, the Father, takes away every branch that does not bear fruit, and “everyone that does, he prunes so that it bears more fruit” (v. 2).

Let us then look into this aspect of pruning as an art of spiritual nurturance.  May I suggest, as an insight, three ways of appraising our experiences of being pruned.  We may understand this spiritual pruning as a process of purification, a process of discernment, and a process toward surrendering.

Pruning as a process of purification. We are always in need of purification. The more intimate we become with the Lord, the more we need to be purified from the habits of sin. Sin and divine life cannot co-exist.  When we allow our habits of sin to persist in us, these habits undermine our intimacy with the Lord. Our capacity to bear much fruit is diminished. Hence, we need to submit ourselves to pruning.  We need to be constantly purified from our sins so that we are always disposed to the life-giving grace of God.  When we are freed from sin, God remains in us and we remain in Him. This strengthens our intimacy with the Lord.

“You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you” (v. 3).  This reminds us that Jesus’ word purifies us.  As an art of pruning, then, we are invited to immerse ourselves always in the word of Jesus by reading the scriptures, reflecting on it, praying with it, and acting upon it. His word reflected and prayed upon purifies our day-to-day intentions and conforms our being and doing with that of God.

What are the habits of sin that hamper my intimacy with the Lord? Can I allow the word of God to purify me every day and hence nurture my intimacy with Him?

Pruning as process of discernment.  Oftentimes we are not bearing much fruit because we are not primarily concerned with what is essential.  We are distracted by too much worldly cares. We are bombarded with many choices each day from the most trivial things to the profoundest options. Most of the time we don’t discern; we just embrace uncritically just anything that is attractively presented to us and hence spend our time, talent, treasure, energy, and life pursuing concerns of this world aimlessly.  The result of this disoriented pursuit is emptiness.  No fruits. 

We need to trim down our concerns and discern what is essential from the passing fancies of this secular society.  Pruning may be seen as discerning our purpose as Christ’s disciples.  Amid this growing secularized or “Godless” society, Christ’s disciples are called to remain in him. In the language of the second reading (1 Jn 3: 18-24), to remain in the Lord is to believe in him and to keep his commandment: “We should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us” (v. 23). For us disciples of the Lord, what is essential is that which brings growth in faith and in our love for one another.  And this is particularly what’s dying in our communities with the onslaught of secularism. Hence, we need to be pruned by our discernment of our essential purpose.  Is the Lord with me in what I do now in life? Or Am I in the Lord as I do what I do in life?

Pruning as a process toward surrendering to God.  When we live in our habits of sin compounded by the Godless culture around us, it is not surprising that this Godlessness may characterize our lifestyle. Meaning, sin and worldly cares become our way of being. They become so much a part of us that we begin to resist any invitation to change. Or sometimes we are still aware of God’s presence in our life but we have grown satisfied and complacent in our comfort zones.  We definitely need pruning to shake off these attachments.  Sometimes, what awakens us is a tremendous experience of pain, like the experience of failure, of great loss, of serious health problem, etc. 

God allows these painful experiences to happen not as punishment but as a powerful intervention to bring us back to him. When we are confronted with the fact of losing everything we believed to be important to us, we either wallow in despair and anger or, with the last ounce of faith, we cling to God and humbly submit.  I believe our experiences of loss are graced moments meant to enable us see clearly that apart from God we are nothing. Our experiences of loss are invitation to move on with hope for a new beginning of a much fruitful life with God. We need to surrender and remain in God.

May our experiences of being pruned nurture our intimacy with God and our fruits give glory to his name: “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples” (v. 8).

Springtime of Renewal (1st Sunday Lent B)

Lent is from an old English word Lencten meaning “spring”—a season when days are lengthen and all of nature comes alive after the sleep of winter. Lent is a springtime, a period of renewal and growth in the life of the spirit.

Three images—desert, flood, rainbow—in today’s readings will show us why. The “desert” experience brings intimacy with God; the “flood” experience brings conversion and new life; and the “rainbow” experience brings hope and confidence in God’s victory. Let us reflect on these three images and allow our Lenten journey to be as flourishing as the spring.

The “desert” experience brings intimacy with God.  The first image is that of the desert. In today’s gospel (Mk. 1:12-15), we see Jesus, after his baptism and before beginning his years of public ministry, being led by the Spirit “into the desert," where he is tempted by Satan. All throughout the Scriptures, the desert is often referred to as a place of trials and of purification from all idols. The Israelites lived in the desert for forty years in order to be tested and purified of their idolatrous habits. Jesus is also tested in the desert and offered the idols of power, wealth and fame. But he passed all trials by his fidelity to the Father. 

The desert is a place where our illusions of self-sufficiency and comfort fade away. When we are in the desert we quickly realize that we need God. Lent is our desert experience too. For forty days our minds and hearts are trained to be faithful to and intimate with God. The three traditional disciplines of Lent help us towards self-emptying and intimacy with God: Fasting sets us free from self-centeredness; our works of mercy lead us to serve and love our neighbors in need; and the discipline of prayer brings intimacy with God whom we choose to be the center of our lives.

Let us allow this season and its disciplines to lead us into greater intimacy with God. What would represent the desert experience for my journey this season of Lent?

The “flood” experience brings conversion and new life. The second image in today's first and second readings is the flood.  The 40-day flood in Noah’s time was God’s act of washing away sin and evil from the earth in order to forge a new beginning.  That ancient flood of water foreshadowed Christian baptism.  In the second reading (1 Pt 3: 18-22), Peter tells us that we are now saved by a baptismal bath which corresponds to the great flood: the waters of baptism washed away all that is sinful in us and we enter into a new life, a new covenant relationship with God.

Lent is our “flood experience”—our opportunity for repentance and conversion as the Gospel reading today calls forth: “Change your ways and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15). Our Lenten journey looks forward to the renewal of our baptismal promises on Easter and invites us to accompany those who will receive the gift of new life through baptism.

We ardently pray therefore for the grace of a life-changing repentance and the joyful appreciation of our new life in baptism.

The “rainbow” experience brings hope and confidence in God’s victory. The third image is the rainbow. In the first reading (Gen. 9:8-15), the rainbow is a symbol of God covenant with Noah. We can grant that Noah had completely no idea about the prismatic refraction of light in a rainbow as its scientific explanation, but he did understand its spiritual meaning. The rainbow stands for God’s covenant with him—God’s promise of victory over the destructive power of sin. In Jesus Christ God fulfilled this promise.

Life on earth is difficult. We still experience the oppressive power of sin and the suffering it brings. Lent offers us our “rainbow” experience. Lent helps us anticipate the glorious victory of Christ on Easter Sunday. Lent allows us to remember even in the face of unspeakable sufferings that there is always hope and we can be confident that Jesus, who himself was crucified, will not let us down as He has overcome the destructive power of sin in his resurrection.  

Can I also be a “rainbow” to others who are experiencing defeat in life? Can I share to them my hope and confidence in the victory of God?

Indeed, Lent is a springtime, a season when our spiritual life blossoms as we experience intimacy, renewal, and hope.

Invitation to Intimacy (2nd Sunday Ordinary B)

Right after Epiphany Sunday which celebrated the joyful truth of God’s manifestation to all nations and to each and every one of us to assure us of his fidelity to the covenant, we can now move on and continue to reflect deeply on this invitation to a loving relationship with this God who communicates and reveals Himself.

This Sunday, we can speak of the invitation to intimacy with God.  For most of us believers, God is present in our lives but great are the odds that we see Him as a distant God watching us from afar or as a God of providence who becomes especially real to us in times of dire need. Today’s readings reveal a God who calls us, who initiates a loving relationship with us, who invites us to intimacy.

God calls us through the voice of restlessness. The young Samuel, in the first reading (1 Sm. 3: 3-10, 19), experiences some restless nights trying to discern whose voice it is that calls him. Twice, he mistakenly believes it is Eli’s voice. Only on the third instance, with Eli’s guidance, that he recognizes the voice of God calling him. In the gospel reading (Jn. 1: 35-42), the first two disciples of Jesus find themselves in a restless search, perhaps, for something to which they can meaningfully devote their lives.  Jesus confronts them: “What are you looking for?”

Restlessness is a universal human experience. At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves searching for something that can give us peace, contentment, and meaning.  This spurs us on to a frustrating exploration in life looking for happiness in money and possessions, in our achievements and honors, in power and influence, in pleasure and easy gratification. Some quite desperately and sadly settle with destructive addictions.  

But restlessness can be the voice of God calling us to Himself.  Like Samuel, we need to listen to God’s voice: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” Or like the first disciples of Jesus, we need to face him and answer bravely his question, “What are you looking for?”  We can be helped tremendously by spiritual guides—like Eli and John who led Samuel and the disciples rightly to the direction of God.  Spiritual directors, as we call them now, can assist us in discerning the voice of God in our experience of restlessness and sorting out the authentic voice of God from many other voices that are there to confuse and mislead us.

God invites us to intimacy with Him. Only in God can our search be over.  As the famous line of St. Augustine’s confession goes: "You have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

God desires that we rest in Him, that we spend time with Him.  Again, after Samuel recognized God’s voice and came to Him with an open and listening heart, the first reading states, “Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him.”  In the gospel, the disciples received Jesus’ invitation: “Come and see.”  This is an invitation to intimacy... an invitation to spend time with God and to know Him quite personally... not as a distant God... not as a “spare-tire God” whom we remember only when we are running with a flat tire.

Amid the hurly-burly of our crazy contemporary lives, we experience a growing emptiness or restlessness. If we are not guided properly, we can be very careless and senselessly plunge into an ultimately destructive coping mechanisms and addictions that offer us nothing but bottomless pit of emptiness.

Today’s readings remind us of God’s standing invitation—“Come and see...”  “Be with me...”  “Whatever you do... you can do it with me.”  Our restlessness is but a longing for intimacy with a God who is just too happy to be known and be recognized.  May we sort out, from the many voices that drown us every day, the real voice of God inviting us to intimacy with Him.