Gospel of the Week: Jesus is the Vine, We are the Branches

There was once a protestant pastor who powerfully said, "God loves us so much!" Then the assembly was astonished by the man who raised his hand and said, "How does God love me? My wife is near dying and still experiences pain, my child lost the right path and became an addict, and my business went down on its stocks. How does God love me with that?"

Dear friends, God's love is being tested by sufferings. Sufferings are born to prepare us for greater things. We have to hold on the vine as branches, to get enlightenment and nourish. The vine, which is Jesus, is the source of our strength and without God, nothing will happen to our lives. That is why hardships and trials are signs that we should be more faithful to God. This will make our faith strong when we will overcome it.

Like vines, it supplies grace to its branches, but the one that receives the nourishment receives more.

As for the gardener, there are only two reasons why he will cut a branch.

1. If the branch receives nourishment but it is not evident. This becomes weed to the plant. Not only it is parasitic, but it helps in the destruction of the plants especially that he stores much nourishment but it doesn't show that it is fruitful and instead the nourishment will abound to all the parts of the plant, it is only stored through its branch.

2. So that the branch will produce more fruitful branches. As what the Gospel weeks ago said, "Dying is giving a new life," this is what it means. Not all dying is bad. Sometimes dying could lead for the better. We need to sacrifice things to produce more fruitfully.

The reason number 2 depicts what this man says. There are a lot of sufferings that we encounter, but hold on and trust to the gardener, God. He cuts off the branches which are hopefully be cut, but hold on, its not the end of your life, rather the bounty pouring of grace to you. In all sufferings we make, remember that God, who is our gardener, makes us suffer for greater things. All of what He does to us has an equivalent change, and that is His unending and powerful grace.