Jn 15,1-8 – Saint Bridget, Religious, Patroness of Europe – Feast
The whole Christian life consists of trying to cling to Christ. Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches precisely to remind us that the real problem of our existence is not what happens to usbut whether what happens to us finds us united or separated from Him. If we remain tied to Christ, it matters relatively little if life cuts us, reduces us, takes something away from us.
A branch attached to the vine, when cut, is not necessarily dying: it can be pruned to bear more fruit. But if a branch is severed from the vine, that same cut simply becomes its end. The scissors don’t make the difference. The difference is made by the connection. Very often life looks just like scissors. There are experiences that take something away from us, projects that fail, relationships that end, certainties that disappear. Faced with all this we may think that God has abandoned us.
But the Gospel suggests another possibility: perhaps some losses, experienced while remaining united to Christ, can mysteriously become pruning. This does not mean saying that everything that happens is wanted by God. It means believing that nothing that happens is so strong as to prevent God from obtaining good from it. Faith does not spare us the cuts of life, but it can prevent those cuts from becoming our death. «Remain in me and I in you». Perhaps all faith is contained in this verb: to remain. Don’t run away when testing comes, don’t separate from Christ when we don’t understanddo not interpret every loss as abandonment. If we remain tied to Him, then even what life has taken from us can mysteriously become the space through which to bear more fruit. And perhaps some of the greatest things in our lives will arise not only despite our pruning, but precisely through it.
Thursday 23 July 2026 – (Saint Bridget, Religious, Patroness of Europe – Feast)
