Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2024

 

“The Father Prunes Those Who Bear Fruit So They can Bear MORE Fruit”

Homily for the 5^th Sunday of Easter, 2024

 

The first Fall Saturday when I was a seminarian at St. Meinrad, I popped a bowl of popcorn and had prepared to watch several college football games in the TV lounge.  I expected lots of other seminarians to do the same.  Only one other guy showed up, and so, after about an hour, I got up and found something better to do with my time.

 

Jesus says in our Gospel that God the Father will prune all those who are ALREADY bearing fruit so that we can bear MORE fruit.  And I have found this to be so true in my life.

 

Of course Jesus also mentions mortal sin in today’s Gospel as being basically one of us looking down, and seeing that we are connected to Christ the vine, and saying to ourselves “I know that this sin that I am about to commit will sever me from Christ, but I am going to do it anyway.”  The only way to remedy that deadly sin is to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

 

But back to college football.  Watching college football is not inherently sinful.  But, over time, God showed me that it is not the BEST use of my time.  And the same goes for TV, my smartphone, social media, etc.  God the Father, in me cooperating with His desire to prune or cut those parts of my life away, has allowed me to bear more fruit.

 

And the Devil is always going to be telling each of us “Here comes God the Father with his big scary pruning scissors, He is going to cut you and it is really going to hurt” but again, we need to know that the Devil is a liar.

 

We need to trust that God the father, in seeing that we are bearing fruit, wants us to give Him permission to trim some things from our life so that we can bear MORE fruit.