It was the minute that changed my life forever. The date was March 21, 2018. It 6:34 a.m. and I was in my living room.
I had just heard in a video a Dad named Joel say these words: “My mission is to know Jesus better every day and help my wife and kids to do the same.” Then my wife, Julie, walked downstairs with a positive pregnancy test in her hands letting me know our fourth child is growing inside her. At that same time, one of my friends whom I hadn’t heard from since we were ordained together as Deacons six months before, hit the send button on an e-mail to me. He said, “Justin, Besides giving up something for Lent, … I am offering my morning and evening prayers as well as a rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet for you and your family. May the grace of God be with you and your family.” Within the course of a minute, I had my life’s mission clarified, expanded and realized I had divine help in carrying out this mission.
Well, five weeks have passed since this minute that changed my life. Since then, my family and I have been watching weekly videos about how our baby is growing and how big our baby is each week. In case you’re curious, our baby’s umbilical cord has now grown and our baby is about the size of a big grape. In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”
Now, to be clear, I am not saying everyone needs to go and have a baby. But what I am saying is the way each of us started our lives can show us on how we should spend the rest of our lives. Each of us started our lives as the fruit of our mother’s womb, connected to something that looks a lot like a vine called an umbilical cord. You see, sometimes the further back in life we go, the more foundational the truths are that we discover.
It was during these first days of our lives, we experienced an intimacy and growth unlike any other time in our lives. In the womb, each of us grew faster than we have since and all we had to do was stay connected to this life-vine. Through this life-vine, we were totally dependent on our mother’s blood to receive the nutrients and oxygen we needed to grow. We also experienced a deep intimacy. We remained in our mother and the nourishment and oxygen from our mother’s life-blood remained in us. Then, when our time eventually had come, we stayed connected to this vine and transitioned from our own little world to becoming born into new life in this bigger world. Then, for the first time, we got to experience this person who brought us this life in a fuller way. We got to see this person face to face.
The way we needed to stay connected to this vine at the beginning of our lives is the way we need to stay connected to the vine of Jesus now and for the rest of our lives. We need Jesus like we need oxygen, like we need food and water, like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is the true vine we desperately need, whether we realize it or not. He provides the growth and intimacy we deep down gasp for, hunger for and thirst for. Unfortunately, soon after each of us were born and became disconnected from the vine we came into this world with, we forgot this experience and this truth of staying connected to the life-vine. So before long, instead of holding onto the true vine of Jesus, we let the changing winds of this world tear us away from Jesus and we started chasing after fake fruits that looked appealing on the surface but are empty inside leaving us feeling unfulfilled.
That’s why Jesus reminds each of us today to remain in him and have Jesus remain in us so we can have the fruitfulness and intimacy that can only be experienced by being deeply connected to Jesus’ vine. So how exactly should we remain in Jesus and have Jesus remain in us? Through the three S’s: sacraments, scripture and sacrifice.
With our first sacrament, baptism, each of us became members of the Church, the body of Christ. By continuing to be a part of his Church, this is how we remain in Jesus’ body. In a few moments, Fr. Jeremy will take the wine and say these words: “fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.” When we drink Jesus’ blood and receive his body, this is how Jesus remains in each of us.
The second way we stay connected with Jesus is through scripture, by receiving Jesus’ words. While the winds of this world are always changing, we can find peace in starting off the day being rooted in Jesus’ words that have remained unchanged for about 2,000 years. By reading even just a verse of scripture, we can have the words of Jesus to chew on in our minds and hearts throughout the day. This is how we have the living word of Jesus remain in us.
The third way to remain in Jesus and have Jesus remain in each of us is through sacrifice. This sacrifice can be done by making a sacrificial heartfelt prayer to Jesus. When we wake in the morning, we simply say, “Jesus, I give my life to you today to live your life.” It’s really that simple and that hard. It’s simple because we’re just praying 12 words. “Jesus, I give my life to you today to live your life.” It’s hard because it requires us to give up control of our lives. But when we do so, we allow Jesus to transform us from the inside out as we receive his life and allow him to live through us. His life becomes our life. We allow Jesus’ life to fill, heal, permeate, and express itself through each of our lives. We get to live his life. The incarnation continues in each of us. He really does live on in us. The fruit of living like this is breathtaking. By staying connected to this vine, we will experience growth and intimacy in this world we could once only dream of. The true vine of Jesus makes the branch of each of our lives reach up to the heavens.
Then, when it is eventually our time, we will stay connected to this vine of Jesus and transition from our little world here to becoming born into new life in the bigger world of heaven. Then, for the first time, each of us will get to experience Jesus, who brought us this life, in a fuller way. May each of us look forward to this minute when our lives are truly changed forever; when we see our life-vine Jesus face to face, when we look into his eyes, when we hug him and remain with him for a very long time.