Fifth Sunday of Easter

During these days of Eastertide the Lord’s words to us in the gospel seem to ring out with ever greater clarity. The liturgy of this season makes us particularly aware that Christ has risen, never to die again, and that through the ministry of the Church we believers become sharers in that new and divine life he now enjoys. In fact, the Church’s only lifeline is her union with her glorified Lord. Christ’s use of the image of the vine and the branches makes the point in a very striking way. Just as the vine provides the sap and the nourishment for the branch to blossom and bear grapes, so the source of life and fruitfulness for the Church is Christ himself. If the Church ever loses sight of Christ, or seeks salvation and fulfilment apart from him, then like a branch severed from the trunk it withers and dies.

As she makes her way through history, the Church as the community of believers is often tempted to seek quick solutions to her difficulties according to the criteria and outlook of this world. Christ does guarantee success and reassurance, but not in this way. Openness to his word and teaching will alone ensure that the Church remains faithful to her mission of offering God’s grace and salvation to the world. The words of the Lord Jesus today come from the upper room on the eve of his passion and death. The disciples would face an uncertain future without his visible presence, yet he left them a programme which would help them negotiate the perils of rejection and persecution. It is a programme which remains valid for all time.

Jesus teaches us that like a vigilant vinedresser his heavenly Father is ever active in the Church, at work in the lives of believers. We need not fear that he is an absent God! The life which flows from Christ the vine is mediated to us through the sacraments, above all through the holy Eucharist which may well underlay the image of the vine. Union with Christ also brings union with the Father, that indwelling within the Church of the Father and the Son which is truly astounding when we think about it. When the word of Christ takes root within us then we have nothing to fear, and he himself comforts us with the assurance that our prayers to God will be heard. May the depth and manner of our Christian living always give glory to God our Father!

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)