Homily Fifth Sunday of Easter (2021) John 15:1-8 “Stay Connected”
Homily Fifth Sunday of Easter (2021) John 15:1-8 “Stay Connected”
No one is an island,
Entire to themself,
Everyone is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a peninsula were.
As well as if the house of your friends
Or of yours were:
Anyone’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in humanity,
And therefore, never can we know for who the bell tolls.
It toils for thee.
(Paraphrase of John Donne’s Poem)
Life teaches us that human beings are connected to one another. We cannot escape this fact. We may like to say that everybody is on their own, but if we try to live that way it will probably lead to some dark places.
We find that fact played out for us repeatedly. The metaphor that Jesus uses in the Gospel today emphasizes this reality. He says the vine is attached to the branches, but he also says the branches are connected to each other through the vine. If a branch is cut off from the vine and the other branches it dies. For people who lived in an agrarian society this is a very powerful image. For us 21st century city dwellers it is not so meaningful, but we could think of other examples that capture the message.
We all know that we depend on electricity. When we don’t have it, we can do very little. We are left in the dark. We can’t even open our garage or a can of beans. Who can forget what happened in Texas in February? The electric grid failed. Texas, as we probably know by now, was not tied into the national electrical grid. The thought was that the state was better off to function on its own.
When three winter storms hit in the same month electricity went out for millions of people. Little could be done except wait. In the end the power failure caused $195 billion in damage. 111 people lost their lives. Now Texas is rethinking its choice to have an independent power grid.
We can also reflect on our experience of the past year as we think of Jesus’s sermon. Before the virus hit, we were becoming less social. Many people had retreated into a virtual world. Some people probably thought this was a better way to live, but the Coronavirus has made us think again. Being isolated at home has not been good for our mental health.
We can point to many examples as to how this is true. Emergency Room visits for mental health issues, especially among teenagers, has gone up 50 % in 2020. Depression and anxiety disorders have risen dramatically. We have been reminded of the price of social isolation.
The last year has been a challenge for us religiously too. We have been reminded of the importance of the Eucharist for our Christian faith. The metaphor of the Vine and the Branches reminds us that the main way we stay connected to Jesus and to each other is through Eucharistic celebrations. The grace of the sacrament is essential. The hope would be that people would value liturgical worship more now.
We can moan and lament what has happened the last year and then go back to living the way we were before the virus, rushing from place to place. We can continue to live in a virtual world much of our day, believing in our own self sufficiency, or we be reminded that no person is an island.
As Christians our spiritual health is depended on being tied to Jesus. Our mental health is as well. The last year can be considered a terrible aberration that should be forgotten. Or, it can be a spiritual opportunity that we can benefit from. Have we found a new hunger for a relationship with Jesus and other members of the Body of Christ? If we have found renewed hunger for connection with the church, we know what Jesus was talking about when he said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in them will bear much fruit.”
Reflection Questions:
- How am I connected to the church? Could I improve by participation?
- Do I have a close relationship to Jesus? What might I do to improve it?
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Dear Parishioners,
Things continue to change on the COVID 19 front. The Center for Disease Control came out with new guidance this week. As I understand it, we can be much more confident in being with others outside without a mask. We definitely do not have to wear a mask if we are by ourselves outside.
Gathering in groups inside is another matter. We still should wear masks and have social distance. Because of all this we still must try to limit the number of people we have at Mass. We still must wear masks.
One piece of guidance that the CDC gave that did not get much publicity is the whole question of sanitizing. We have learned a lot since the first days of the pandemic. The virus, we have found out, does not behave the same way as a cold or flue virus. It lives a matter of seconds or minutes on a porous surface, like a wood surface for example. On a bathroom sink it might live a little longer.
For this reason, on May 1st, we will stop passing out chips and sanitizing pews after Masses. We will still sanitize bathrooms between Masses. I would like to thank all those who have been cleaning after the Masses. They have been most faithful. Because they helped to do this, we probably had a less severe cold and flu season.
Let’s pray that one day soon we can relax the rest of the protocols. We must consider ourselves fortunate to live in a country where we can afford to give everyone inoculations. Let’s pray that poorer countries may have the vaccinations they need soon. I believe the United States is starting to ship vaccine to hotspots around the world.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints watch over and protect us today.
Fr. Mark