5th Sunday of Easter (03.05.15)
Being Aware Of What We Hear and Say
In everyday life how deeply do we listen to others? Equally, how deeply do we understand the promptings that result in our countless words? How do we measure the impact of our words?
Jesus would have been deeply aware of what he said and how it impacted on those who heard him. From infancy Jesus would have listened to Mary and Joseph, his wider family and their rabbi. They would have made him aware of his people’s history and especially their sacred relationship with God. In the absence of books, oral transmission was the principle method of communication. Jesus’ uncontaminated awareness gave him precise insight into people’s different levels of authenticity when they spoke. Jesus’ awareness reached beneath the words he heard and the examples he saw of people’s daily lives. In all of this, the sinless perfection of his mother, Mary, must have stood out so clearly.
It may be helpful to recall that Jews live their history in the present. When the Jews of our day celebrate Passover, they believe they are living the event now. It is not a commemoration of a past event as we, for example, observe Remembrance Sunday. For Jews the actual event is brought into the present by the believers’ enactment.
These thoughts may stimulate us to a deeper listening to the extract from John’s Gospel (15:1-8) for this the 5th Sunday of Easter where Jesus declares to his Jewish followers:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… ”
Jesus is not using figurative language. Jesus, the Jew, is speaking to Jews well versed in their people’s history because they lived it, daily, in their hearts. For Jews, the grape vine and Israel were synonymous. By declaring himself ‘the true vine’, Jesus was declaring his divine nature and, more, he was calling God, the vinedresser, his Father.
When Jesus, in John’s Gospel, used the symbol of the vine and the branches to explain his relationship with his own, he was drawing upon a centuries-old Hebrew tradition. Israel, frequently described in such terms, was accustomed to relying on God as the great vinedresser and vineyard owner who saw to the people’s every need (see Hos 10:1; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 2:21; Ezek 15; Ps 80:9-16). When the community of John, the Gospel writer, passed on this familiar image, they were affirming their faith in Jesus as being the true vine.
In declaring himself to be ‘The True Vine’ Jesus was fully aware of the degree to which those who heard him then, as well as we who hear Him today, believe him and take his words to heart.
Europeans have grown accustomed to living with continuously rising levels of external noise. It is claimed that people living within earshot of Heathrow Airport eventually don’t hear the planes. Whether they realize it or not, people, subjected to high noise levels, only hear others through a barrage of unremitting interference. For us Europeans to give another person our undivided attention is demanding. It is a skill to be learnt. Even if we were to move into a soundproof room, we would not be able to give another our undivided attention because, even in the absence of external noises, there are internal ‘noises’ ricocheting within us. Our internal ‘noises’ are the accumulation of unattended distractions constantly clogging our senses. For example, before a person can commence a ‘silent retreat’ their director will allocate two to three days of ‘wind down’, of uncluttered silence, as a necessary noise ‘detoxification’. Only when the turbulence within is stilled can we give full attention to another, especially God.
Personal stillness and internal silence facilitate a depth of awareness that may be a more rare experience today. When another person speaks to us there is more to hear than just the words. A human voice carries nuances reflecting much about the person speaking, as well as their perception of us.
The pain and pleasure, the stress and the joy of our ever-changing daily lives reduce and confuse our capacity to hear profoundly. Satan is dedicated to keep us from the Truth. Holding true to our Baptismal consecration demands a dedicated love. Jesus experienced great moments of his heavenly Father’s love and support as, for example, at his Baptism by John and, again, on the mountain of the Transfiguration. In between were many days of struggle culminating in the torment of Calvary epitomized by Jesus’ cry from the Cross – “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” (Matt 27:46) because as Jesus had earlier declared:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… ”
Whether we had heard Jesus personally speak the words quoted from John’s Gospel or, as we do now, hear someone read them, their potential to impact upon us would be the same. The Truth is always The Truth, despite the human sinfulness of the reader or preacher or listener or the poor acoustic. What does diminish the impact of God’s ‘Truth’ in us is any un-reconciled sin creating a distance between us and God.
You could ask yourself how Jesus’ declaration,
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… ”
impacted on you this Sunday. What level of consciousness has stayed with you? For example, as Christians we acknowledge the ultimate perfection of both the vine and the vinedresser but does the ‘harvest’ in 2015 reflect the quality of that input? In a very personal way, does my daily life truly reflect this vine and this vinedresser? This and many similar thoughts could fill my quiet moments, if I am allowed or allow myself to have quiet moments!
Is my response to the Gospel – “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ”? – just words or do I truly aim to praise God by implementing, daily and to the best of my ability, his input in my life right now.