Wednesday of the Fourth week in Lent
Memorial of St Cyril of Jerusalem Bishop and Doctor
John 15:1-8
“I am the vine , you are the branches”
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take away. And each one that does bear fruit, he will cleanse, so that it may bring forth more fruit. You are clean now, because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.
Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so also are you unable, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he will be cast away, like a branch, and he will wither, and they will gather him and cast him into the fire, and he burns.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you may ask for whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. In this, my Father is glorified: that you should bring forth very much fruit and become my disciples.
What do the Fathers say?
St AUGUSTINE. For we cultivate God, and God cultivates us. But our culture of God does not make Him better: our culture is that of adoration, not of ploughing: His culture of us makes us better. His culture consists in extirpating all the seeds of wickedness from our hearts, in opening our heart to the plough, as it were, of His word, in sowing in us the seeds of His commandments, in waiting for the fruits of piety.
And who is there in this world so clean, that he cannot be more and more changed? Here, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. (1 John 1:8) He cleanses then the clean, i. e. the fruitful, that the cleaner they are, the more fruitful they may be. Thus He calls Himself immediately the cleanser of the branches: ‘Now ye are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you.’ He performs the part of the husbandman then, as well as of the vine.
But why does He not say, you are clean by reason of the baptism wherewith you are washed? Because it is the word in the water which cleanses. Take away the word, and what is the water, but water? Add the word to the element, and you have a sacrament. For in the word itself, the passing sound is one thing, the abiding virtue another.
This word of faith is of such avail in the Church of God, that by Him who believes, presents, blesses, sprinkles the infant, it cleanses that infant, though itself is unable to believe.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. And for as much as Christ was sufficient for Himself, His disciples needed the help of the Husbandman. He adds concerning the branches, every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. By fruit is meant life, i. e. no one can be in Him without good works.
And even as the best of men require the work of the husbandman, He adds, And every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. He alludes here to the tribulations and trials which were coming upon them, the effect of which would be to purge, and so to strengthen them. By pruning the branches we make the tree shoot out the more.
St HILARY. The useless and deceitful branches He cuts down for burning.