Christ the Cornerstone

Without Christ, we can do nothing; with him, we can flourish

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

Without Christ, we can do nothing. This is not an exaggeration or simply a pious statement. It’s a fact. Our lives are totally dependent on God. As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Jesus makes a bold statement in the Gospel cited at the beginning of this column as he is preparing his disciples for the radical separation that will take place after his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. Although they will no longer be together in this life, their union remains strong.

Jesus uses the image of a vineyard. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower,” he tells them (Jn 15:1). Just as the branches of a vine are interconnected, and function as a single plant with many branches all bearing fruit, we who are disciples of Jesus receive our vitality from him.

Life is God’s original gift to us. By God’s grace, we are born into this world. It is through God’s sustaining power that we live and breathe and function as members of the human family.

In addition, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are baptized, reborn into Christ our Savior, and given a reason for being—to be missionary disciples who proclaim the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to all nations and peoples.

God has given us many talents and abilities. We are intelligent, creative and caring people. We can build complex cities and develop wonderful technologies. We can create marvelous works of art and write brilliant treatises on philosophy and theology. But without Christ, we are nothing.

Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. Especially when we unite ourselves to Jesus in the Eucharist, where ordinary bread and wine are transformed into his body and blood, we receive from him all the nourishment and vitality necessary to grow and bear fruit.

United with Christ, we can flourish. We can love and serve others, just as Jesus loves and serves us. But cut off from him, we dry out and become useless, like the branches of a dead tree. “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither;” says the Lord. “People will gather them and throw them into a fire, and they will be burned” (Jn 15:6).

The image of a vine and its branches was very familiar to people in Jesus’ time. They depended on the life-giving fruits of the vine, and they knew what it was like when a branch was separated from its primary source of sustenance. Jesus uses this image to help his disciples (and all of us) make the essential connection between his

life-giving love and our ability to flourish as women and men made in God’s image and likeness.

Love is the nourishment we need to live well and to serve others unselfishly. Jesus tells us that his Father is the source of the love that he shares with us in order that we may love God and our neighbor in return. So, Jesus tells his disciples (and all of us):

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (Jn 15:9–13)

The fruit that is born of love is joy. If we keep the Lord’s commandment— “love one another as I love you”—our joy will be complete. But if we allow ourselves to be separated from the love of God, we will know only the isolation and bitterness that afflicts those branches that are cut off from their only source of life.

As we continue our celebration of the Easter season, let’s pray for the grace to remember, and truly believe, that when we present the gifts of bread and wine at Mass, we also present our whole lives to God in gratitude for all that we are in Jesus Christ. He is the vine. We are the branches.

Without Christ, we are nothing. Through him, with him and in him, we give glory to God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and we can flourish like the branches of a vine that bears much fruit. †