May 6, 2021
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter on May 2, 2021 at St. Austin Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22; 1 John 3:18-24; and John 15:1-8.
Our gospel passage today is the metaphor of the vine and the branches, but how much do we know about viticulture, the science of growing grapes? For most vine growers, the harvesting lasts only a month. The rest of the year is spent on maintenance tasks that are essential to obtaining an ongoing, reliable harvest, too – cutting shoots, trellising, ploughing down, de-budding, trimming, leaf thinning, and pruning. Jesus says that we are like branches that have already been pruned by God.
Can we each think of a time when a door closed, but it eventually led us to a better opportunity? Before the new opportunity presented itself, we probably felt lost, upset, or angry. But when we look back now, it seems more like a necessary “pruning” by God to allow us to flourish. Well-pruned vines yield 16-fold what untended vines do: they produce four times as much fruit in one quarter of the length!
With all that we’ve lost in the pandemic, perhaps we’re all going through a shared time of pruning right now. But even when we walk in a dark valley, God is with us, inviting us to life in abundance and resurrection. Let us be sprinkled once again with the waters of our baptism.
Twenty years ago this month, I first became convinced that God was calling me to consider the priesthood. I became an affiliate with the seminary of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, joining the seminarians every week for Mass, dinner, and an in-house class. It seemed to be going really well, so I applied to the seminary, but the diocesan psychologist blocked my application. He argued that I was not mature enough to become a priest. I was devastated. Did God want me to continue my engineering career for another 40 years? What was I supposed to tell my family and friends who knew that I had been discerning the priesthood?
Granted, not everything that happens – including not all the seemingly bad stuff – is part of the will of God. But for me, I now look back at that morning meeting in Dr. Pacoe’s office not as a death, but as a pruning. If he had approved my application, I probably would not have engaged in so much spiritual introspection. I’d have never become a Paulist, and I surely wouldn’t be living and serving at St. Austin. I can point to other rough periods in my life that felt like deaths that turned out to be great opportunities for growth.
Even the most passionate disciples must continue doing the maintenance work – the pruning, the plowing, the discerning – throughout all the years of discipleship. Not every moment is the moment of harvest. If you read between the lines, it’s clear that after St. Paul’s conversion, the apostles still sent him back to the city of Tarsus – maybe for as long as 10 years! – to grow in his discipleship before he took his famous missionary journeys.
On the other hand, we disciples can convince ourselves that we need to reach a certain level of some abstract ideal – we’ll call it “holiness” – before we can produce fruit for the kingdom of God. Deep down inside, we know that such logic is baloney.
The only way we get better at Christian living is to do it. The last line of our gospel passage drives this point home. The people gathered at the Last Supper with Jesus have followed him for a long time and over a lot of miles. Yet Jesus commands them to “bear much fruit and become my disciples.” It seems to imply that we can bear fruit even while we’re still figuring out what it means to be a disciple. A well-tended grapevine produces abundant fruit every year, not just in the last year of its life. But such abundance requires ongoing maintenance and care.
St. Austin Catholic Parish and School produces good fruit consistently and reliably. I’d like to talk for a moment about how we can continue that legacy. This is our Annual Stewardship Pledge weekend. Even in this year of hardship, St. Austin has flourished, thanks to so many people’s generosity in contributing time, talent, and treasure. Thank you! Many of you received an email on Thursday afternoon from Kelly Bodu and Mario Espinoza, the chairs of our Pastoral and Finance Councils, respectively; many of you will receive a letter in the mail in the next two weeks. (If you give with cash or through Venmo, please register with us online or by calling the office, so that we can better communicate with you!)
On behalf of the entire parish community, Kelly and Mario ask you to prayerfully consider your financial offering for the upcoming fiscal year. When you make a pledge in advance, it helps us to be better stewards of your gifts. This year, instead of asking you to increase your giving, we’d like to ask for something else that can improve our maintenance and reliability. As things currently stand, our offertory collection fluctuates throughout the year. Our average weekly collection in July is about 40% lower than in December. If you’re comfortable doing so, please consider making a recurring gift on your credit card or through your bank account. That is, please consider automatically giving two percent of your annual giving each week or giving one-twelfth of your annual giving each month.
We understand that many of you may not be comfortable switching to automatic giving, and we will gratefully continue to receive your contributions by other means. But for those of you who use automated giving for gym memberships, streaming services, or charitable giving, please consider switching to a similar method for supporting St. Austin Catholic Parish and School. Once again, we are so grateful for your generosity. Thank you!
[For those reading online who don’t have a connection to St. Austin Catholic Parish and School: Please consider making a recurring donation to the Paulist Fathers here. Thank you! –Ed.]
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The better we care for one another, the more we will flourish in our relationship with Jesus, the closer we will grow to one another, and the more great fruit we will collectively produce for the kingdom.