In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks to His disciples using the metaphor of the vine and branches. He says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower."

This imagery of the vine was familiar to the people in a culture that tilled the land. Jesus, however, goes deeper and emphasizes the relational aspect: "Remain in me, as I abide in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me."

Jesus wants us to remain fixed in a state close to him. Jesus asks His followers to stay constant in their relationship to Him. We remain and abide in the Lord, writes Pope Francis, “in order to find the courage to step outside of ourselves, from our comfort zone, from our limited and protected spaces, in order to cast ourselves into the open sea of the needs of others and to give a wide range to our Christian witness in the world.”

This courage to step outside ourselves is born from faith in the Risen Lord and from the certainty that His Spirit accompanies us.

One of the ripest fruits that springs from communion with Christ is the commitment to charity for our neighbor, loving our brothers and sisters with self-sacrifice. The dynamism of believers’ charity is not the result of strategies; rather, it is born from the encounter with Jesus and from abiding in Jesus. For us, He is the vine whose sap — or life — we absorb.

When we are intimate with the Lord, as the vine and branches, we are intimate and joined. We are able to bear the fruits of new life, of mercy, of justice and peace — all derived from the Lord’s Resurrection.

— Father Mark