5th Sunday of Easter

Jesus says: "You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you." (Jn 15: 3) What does it mean that we are pruned/cleansed by his words? Anyone who grows grapes will have seen the tangle of branches that remain as autumn turns to winter. Even the dead leaves have gone. What was once green and beautiful with sweet grapes hanging from the branches is now dead and desiccated. Likewise, the cares of life and the burdens we carry can cause us to wither. We can get tangled up in self -justifications, rationalizations and excuses for our plight. We also hear it in the media when someone who has sinned says: "I made a mistake." We need Jesus: "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1: 24) to speak to us. It is his love and mercy, revealed and active in the Scriptures and the sacraments that cleanses us of delusions and anxiety. We know that we are both loved and called from the beginning. If we listen to him and obey his word we will be renewed and in due season new branches will spring forth so that the fruit of the virtues will yield a wine of faith, hope and love. "So we do not lose heart. Even though out outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." ( 2 Cor 4: 16-18)