May 13, 2009 (Feast of Fatima)

Gospel Reading for Today: John 15:1-8

"You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you."

Today's reading is similar to last Sunday's gospel. And yet we cannot really exhaust the message of this gospel reading in just one reading. And we will never exhaust the grace of this good news. Each time we read it, a different line will strike us, a different feeling will be evoked in us. It is because we read the gospel in the state we are in, as we are. The person who read this gospel last Sunday will have a different experience, feelings, and disposition as today.

Jesus said, we are already pruned because of the word spoken to us. He is speaking then to people who have already been "attuned" to his words. These people who have heeded to Christ's words are believed to have been pruned by his words. Pruned understood as making us a new creation. New creation because the bad, withered parts have already been taken out from us. We must understand then that Jesus' words are words that give life, a new life. Jesus' words are powerful enough to cut through us and remove whatever it is that is not helping us.

If we listen to God's words then we are assured that we will be given a new life. We will be created anew. In the process of pruning though, we should note that it is a tough process to bear. Because in the process of cutting out a part of us that is not helping us, it cannot be helped that we will get hurt also in the process. And thus, the process of being recreated is a painful process. We have to realize this reality in order for us to embrace the painful experiences in our lives, our own hurts, as part of this process of being recreated, being given a new life. As C.S. Lewis expressed it, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains." It is through our pain that we can hear very audibly and it when we experience pain that we can hope that a new us will emerge after.