Fr. Chris - Fifth Sunday of Easter - Homily

"The Christ Inside our Hearts"
Today our readings are full of various expressions from St. Paul and Christ himself of what our faith is all about: Love! Love which dwells in our hearts; love which is expressed through action, not just words; love which is truth, and the truth is love, love, Christ himself, mysteriously dwelling within us and us in him by means of the Holy Spirit; Christ, the vine, cultivated and nurtured by our Creator Father, the vine who feeds us love through the power of the Holy Spirit through our spiritual veins, we, the branches, who need the vine to survive on our life journeys.  
 
It might be easy to say from a logical, scientific point of view that all this is pure analogy. These statements are only ‘symbolic concepts’, put together poetically to help us relate to an invisible God. After all, didn’t Jesus simply use the idea of a vine and branches to explain our spiritual connectivity with himself and God, because it was something people of his time could relate to in terms which our practical, logical world could comprehend, then and now, much like the parables?   
 
Indeed, Christ was trying to define for us something of a much higher nature than we can ever understand with our limited abilities. But this does not mean what Jesus and Paul are telling us is not real. In fact, what Jesus is trying to illustrate is more real than the material world we see and perceive.
 
The world of the unseen, especially the unseen which dwells in our hearts, has perhaps always been a challenge to comprehend, yet alone to define. Yet the desire to understand our unseen, spiritual side and our connection with creation is more prevalent than we realize. Cinema alone is busy trying to figure out the unseen, spiritual side of humanity from the idea of ‘the unseen Force’ in Star Wars, to the concept that we exist in a contrived unseen ‘grid’ in the Matrix.
 
But creation itself reflects the unseen Jesus speaks of. Job [12.7-10] tells us, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human.”
 
We can go even deeper with Job’s examination of creation by asking, “What is it we are feeling inside when we behold the beauty of the world, beauty as in Paul’s ‘truth’ perhaps defined in a baby’s smile, a field of flowers, a blazing sunset or vast landscape of water? What does this inner response of the heart tell us?
 
Is it not the Spirit of God awakening in our hearts, moving us, touching us, igniting the awe of Creation in us in ways which words cannot describe? This suggests we are comprised of an even deeper unseen force, our spiritual nature which connects us to Christ and God. Very difficult to describe, yet this is what Christ is trying to illustrate for us with his image of the vine and branches.
 
If we live our lives being more conscious of our spiritual nature, our connectivity to Christ who is mysteriously dwelling within us, and love one another - not just in words, but in actions - our life journeys will be more meaningful and fruitful. Paul says, “Whoever obeys his commandments abides in him, and he abides in them. By this we know that he abides in us by the [Holy] Spirit which he has given us.”  
 
And Christ promises such marvellous things for those who respect this connection. “Abide in me as I abide in you. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Whoever abides in me and I in them bears much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” Christ is truly in our hearts, the source of all love and truth, peace and joy in life.  
 
John O’Donohue, beloved author of Anam Cara, Gaelic for ‘soul friend’, once said: “The heart is the inner face of your life. The human journey strives to make this inner face beautiful. It is here love [Christ] gathers within you. Love is absolutely vital for a human life. For love alone can awaken what is divine within you. In love, you grow and come home to your self. When you learn to love and let yourself be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit, … warm and sheltered.”
 
The divine is awakened in us by love; Divine or Di-Vine in Latin ‘Of the “Vine”’.
And love requires action, not just words, a commitment to engage both Christ, the Vine, who nourishes us, and each other, the branches who can fill each other’s lives with spiritual gratification. If we gather regularly with Christ in our hearts through prayer and silence, he will give us what we all need to live hopeful, fruitful lives.  
   
– Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario ​