“Remain in me as I remain in you.”
(John 15:4)
These words of Jesus may sound like a moral imperative from the Lord. We might imagine Jesus wagging his finger at us saying, “You’d better do what I tell you, or else!”
After all, the second reading tells us that we remain in the Lord by keeping his commandments. And in the gospel, Jesus himself says that those who do not remain in him are like the dry branches that are gathered up and burnt.
Yet Jesus’ words to us today are not so much a warning, but a promise, and a promise fulfilled…“as I remain in you.”
Through Baptism, God has made us his children in Christ, and has poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon us. In the first reading, we see the powerful effects of the Spirit who has been given to us.
Saul, who had been persecuting Christians out of his own religious zeal, has been transformed into a witness to the risen Lord Jesus whom he himself encountered. Barnabas is on hand to vouch for the sincerity of Paul’s conversion, and in spite of tension and difficulties, the church was at peace and growing because of “the consolation of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:31)
In the second reading, John reminds us that the way we know Jesus remains in us and we in him is because of the Spirit he has given us. (1 John 3:24)
Before Jesus utters a warning, he gives us his promise. Before he gives us a command, he gives us his Spirit.
The language of abiding, remaining, sharing life and bearing fruit is spousal imagery. And a successful marriage is not a 50/50 arrangement where each spouse goes halfway and expects the other to pick up the slack. A true marriage is 100/100, where each spouse is fully committed and brings and offers his or her all to the beloved.
“I remain with you,” is Jesus’ promise to us. He is all in, and he does not take back his word, his faithfulness, or his Spirit he has breathed upon us in Baptism and poured out in power through the sacrament of Confirmation.
As branches on the vine, may we know the power of his life in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. May we offer each day as a total gift of ourselves to the one who has given himself fully in love to us in giving us His Spirit.
-Fr. Tom
