The Importance of Pruning: A Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

I love flowers. I love going up to them and smelling them, hoping to find a beautiful fragrant scent. But I am not a gardener: if you ask me to plant, grow and care for a plant, good luck! I am lucky that I can remember to water the plants in my office and bedroom that I see each day, let alone a garden outside of the house.

I bring up gardening because today we hear the famous lines from John’s Gospel about the vine grower, the vine, and the branches. God the Father is the vine grower, Jesus is the vine and you and I are the branches (John 1:1,5). I understand that the vine grower must take away every branch that does not bear fruit (John 1:2), that makes sense to me. But I do not understand why the vine grower would need to prune the branches that bear fruit already (John 1:2). How can pruning a branch that is bearing fruit produce more fruit?

I am not a gardener, so I went to Google and searched “Why is it important to prune branches of a vine?” I learned a lot from the articles I read and that particularly for grape vines, the vine grower prunes the branches of the vine that have reproduced fruit already because grapes produce fruit on a branch only once. The branch of the new year's growth grew from the branches of last year's harvest. So, when a branch bears fruit one year, the vine grower must trim that branch, being aware that buds left on that branch are where the new shoots will grow for the following year.

I also learned that careful pruning allows the vine to produce the best fruit. If the vine grower would never prune the vine, then there would be shoots everywhere and perhaps even a lot of fruit, but that fruit will be small and underdeveloped since the vine cannot fully sustain all of the fruit that is produced. - Ahh…now that I can understand what Jesus was saying. The disciples growing up in the land of grape vines knew all this already. But how does this apply to you and I, the branches of today?

First, it brings up gratitude. I am the fruit of the branch on the vine that my parents were from, and the vine where their parents were from. I am grateful for their gift of faith to me and their dedication to Jesus the vine. May you too feel some gratitude for those that have gone before us.

Second, we can recognize that pruning is a part of life, though it may hurt at times, it is going to lead us to bear more fruit and better fruit. The vine grower helps us to prune away our sins and tendencies to sin so that we can be the best Christians we can be.

And third, we can know that we are not alone on the journey. Beginning with the disciples at the time Jesus until now and until the second coming, we are not alone. There are many branches on the vine that can help and guide us. Not only those on earth, but those from the saints in heaven too. May your sense of gratitude, recognition that pruning is a part of life and the knowledge that you are not alone lead you to bearing much fruit.

Happy Easter!