The gospel today is talking about vineyards. Vineyards are like a garden – sort of. Unlike a garden where you can grow all kinds of flowers and vegetables, vineyards grow one thing: grapes – and usually for making wine. I don’t have a “green thumb” but I can successfully plant and harvest a vegetable garden. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. There is something very practical here: 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. Many suggest that this is the practical answer of how one remains in Christ and in his Word, bears fruit, and remains in the love of Jesus. These things are not some mystical experience. It is simple obedience. It is when we keep Christ’s commandments that we abide in his love. Once again appeal is made to Christ’s own example. He kept the Father’s commandments and thus abides continually in the Father’s love. And it is not a blind following of the commands, it is to “listen through” to the deeper love that resides within and throughout the commandments. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. Gospel text begins: As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. From the obligations placed upon his disciples (vv.1-8 from last Sunday’s gospel) Jesus turns to his love for them. He first tells them that his love for them is like the Father’s love for him. Then he commands them to continue in his love, suggesting that it is possible for people to live without being mindful of Christ’s love for them and so break the closeness of the fellowship. Jesus commands them not to do this. Continue reading
Today is the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena, along with St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy! As a feast day, there are readings specific to the occasion, taken from the First Letter of St. John and the Gospel of Matthew – and these are well chosen for the occasion. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter in Lectionary Cycle B. This gospel continues the pericope begun last week (John 15:1-8) that begins “I am the true vine…” The gospel is part of the larger “Farewell Discourse” that occurs during the evening when Jesus gathered with his apostles for the “Last Supper” before his passion and death. Some point from last week’s notes are: Continue reading
There is something poetic, mysterious, and magical in a vineyard before the harvest on an early morn with the dew on the vine and the first light of a just-rising sun glistening upon the fruit. But, if you are like me, you probably do not have any experience in the vineyards except perhaps as a visitor.
The vineyard does not just happen by itself. There is a complex dance between the vine, the branches and the vine grower. For example, did you know that a single grape vine can produce as much as 13 feet of new branch growth in one growing season. What happens if all that new growth remains un-pruned? It would not be unusual for that un-pruned vine to have as many as 300 fruit producing buds. While that might sound great, that’s way too many buds for the plant to support. You might have lots of produce, but it will be incredibly low quality, and good for nothing. It would probably just end up as fuel for the fire. You would have to remove as much as 75% of the buds and the associated vegetative growth so the plant can properly develop and ripen the fruit it produces. The goal is always good fruit.
This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter. Many Catholic scholars (Raymond Brown, Jerome Kodell, Eduard Schwizer, etc.) see a part of John’s Eucharistic theology in the metaphor of the “Vine and the Branches” – specifically serving as the cup, as a type of parallel to the “Bread of Life” discourse in John 6. The vine was a recognized Eucharistic symbol at the time the Gospel according to John reached its final written form. We read in the Didache: “And concerning the Eucharist, hold Eucharist thus: First concerning the Cup, ‘We give thanks, our Father, for the Holy Vine of David your child, which you make known to us through Jesus your child…” (IX:1-2). Continue reading
If you are interested in the progress on clearing the Baltimore Harbor channel to reopen the Port of Baltimore, here are two sites I can recommend:
In case you are interested in what they are using to “pick up” things on the harbor floor:
Today’s gospel contains the verse we all remember from the King James translation version: “In my Father’s mansion, there are many rooms.” As grand as that image is, in fact, the word “mansion” does not appear in the original Greek. It simply says, 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter. Another word with a double meaning is meno — translated “remain” in our text, but it also carries meanings of “abide, stay; live, dwell; last, endure, continue.” Sometimes this verb refers to the branch staying connected to the vine and sometimes it refers to disciples staying connected to Jesus. This word occurs 11 times in 15:1-17. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, neither can disciples bear fruit if they are disconnected from Jesus. Continue reading
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