Now I know that any number of you enjoy a good syrah or pinot – and yes, there are plenty of wine magazines and web-sites out there, and you can go on wine tasting tours or vacations – but it’s simply true that none of us think about or experience wine or vines the way our ancestors in the ancient world did.
The ancient Greeks, and their successors the Romans, saw wine as a staple of domestic life and as an essential commodity in the economy and in trade. If you ever visit museums in Italy, Greece or the Middle East you inevitably see more ancient wine jugs than you could shake a stick at. Wine wasn’t just a luxury for the relatively well off, as we must admit it is today, rather it was an ever-present necessity for everyone’s daily life – even for the slave!
More than that, wine had medicinal and religious implications. Wine was used not only as a painkiller – surprise, surprise – but as an antiseptic, as a laxative and as a cure for the plague! And of course we are all aware of the cult that surrounded the god Dionysos or Bacchus, who was the god of wine, and had temples built and frescoes painted in his honor.
For our Jewish ancestors something quite similar is true. In the Book of Genesis, vines were one of the first crops planted after the Great Flood; and in the Book of Exodus, Hebrew scouts excitedly report that Canaan, the Promised Land, had abundant grapevines.
For Jews, wine was not only a necessary part of sustaining daily life, it was an essential part of proper worship: wine was poured out as an offering in the Jewish Temple, and it played, and still plays, a central role in the Sabbath and Passover meals.
Not surprisingly, therefore, the Jewish Scriptures use vines as a powerful image for the nation and its relationship with God. The Psalms (80) and the prophet Jeremiah (2:21) refer to Israel, the Chosen People, as the choice vine that God “brought out of Egypt” and planted in a promised land.
And when Israel fails to fulfill God’s covenant, the prophet Isaiah condemns their infidelity, and promises that God will cease to tend the vineyard of Israel: “it will not be pruned or hoed, but will be allowed to fall into ruin.” Sure enough, Israel is conquered and taken into bondage in Babylon.
This is the tremendously important, all encompassing place that wine and therefore vines held in the world-view of our ancient ancestors. It’s certainly not how we think of wine and vines today, but it’s absolutely necessary for us to appreciate this understanding of vines if we are to have any chance of appropriating into our lives what Jesus has to say to us in today’s Gospel.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower . . . 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.”
In saying that He is the vine, Jesus is making the point that He is the all-important reality that the ancient and Jewish worlds associated with wine and vines. It is really Jesus who is necessary to sustain daily life and existence. He is the source of our unity and identity as a holy people. He is the true medicine, our source of healing and strength. It is Jesus who should be the foundation of our economy and direct our markets. He is the One who inspires art and culture, architecture and literature. It is Jesus whom God chooses and frees from bondage.
But just as we do not think of wine and the vine as our ancient ancestors did, do we really think of Jesus in this way? Do we really believe, and live our lives in a way that shows that Jesus is the source of everything we are and everything we do?
In calling Himself the Vine, and naming us as branches, Jesus explains the tremendously intimate and integral relationship He wants to exist between Him and us, and amongst us a community. Just as a vine is made up of all its branches, and the life of the vine is the life of its branches, so too Jesus freely chooses to live His life in and through us. The fruit He wants to bear in the world can only come to life if we choose to remain connected to Him and draw our life and sustenance from Him.
And how can we be sure that we remain in Him? How can we draw our life, and strength, and healing from Him? How can we be sure that it is Him who inspires our participation in the worlds of science and medicine and industry and art?
The First Letter of Saint John, our second reading today, makes it very plain: “Those who keep His commandments remain in Him, and He in them . . . and His commandment is this: we should believe in the name of Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He commanded us.”
We know that the love that Jesus commands is not an easy, Hallmark version of love. It is a self-sacrificing love, a love that leads to the Cross. That is why Jesus says His Father prunes every branch that bears fruit – like Jesus we experience the Cross precisely so that we can bear more abundant fruit.
Friends, we are all members of the same family, branches of the same vine. The plant of which we are branches is the Cross of Christ – the Tree of Life. The root of which we are born is Baptism – the sap that nourishes us, the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. And we have Christ’s assurance that if we remain rooted in Him; in the Sacraments, in prayer, in acts of charity; then we will draw always from His life, we will grow and flourish – we will indeed bear much fruit.
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