"I am the true vine". Certainly there was a very strong allegorical form about the use of the vine in religious discourses to explain the importance of belonging to God, of being all of Him, both in Judaism and in Greek and Roman paganism. In the Hellenistic world (of Greek culture), the symbolism of the vine indicated a life; in the Hebrew world, it symbolized messianic time (abundance of the fruit of the vine-cf. Gn 49,10-12), Israel itself in Os 10: 1-3, and, in Is 5: 1-7, the prophet shows Israel as a vineyard, which despite all the care of the viticulturist, called "beloved", barren, unable to produce the fruits desired by the beloved, unable to reciprocate love. Ezek. 15: 1-6 shows how Israel, being the vine of God, betrayed the Lord, not corresponding in the same love. While God loved her, lovingly caring for her, she, in turn, remained sterile in love, hardened in the counter-hand of God's horizon. The psalmist prays, "Come back, O God of hosts, look up from the highest heavens, see and visit the vineyard. Protect this vineyard for you planted, this sapling which your hand has tended" (Ps 80, 15-16). The psalmist's prayer is the yearning for a profound transformation, for a perfect meeting between God and his people, accomplished in Christ.
2. Jesus Christ is the perfect vine, in which the new people of God are definitively found. It will no longer be possible to constitute the people of God without Christ, who is the Head of the new people, of the body, called the Church. The accent is now Christological, for in Christ alone, the vineyard of the Father (the farmer) will give the desired fruit. Through Jesus Christ a rupture with ancient Israel was given. It is by abiding in Christ, that every branch, that every person, that the whole vineyard will bear fruit. This abiding indicates the need for communion with Christ and the impossibility of salvation without Him.
3. On the other hand, separating from Christ (the same as becoming a dry branch) indicates perdition. "Every branch that does not bear fruit in me" (meaning condemnation); "and every branch that beareth fruit, he maketh it clean, that it may bring forth more fruit" (pruning, caring, cleansing, cleansing, cleansing of sins). Without the vine it is impossible to stay alive. There is, therefore, an eschatological connotation in the text: the judgment will be of life for those who remain, will be of death, for those who deny Him ("shall be cast out as a branch and dry up. .
4. Christ and his disciples form as a whole, a single identity in the reciprocal experience of love. The disciples abide in Christ, and this in His disciples. Both constitute the vine, the Church being the branches, to such an extent that it can no longer be separated from one another. There is no Christ without the Church, no Church without Christ. Only from this reciprocal communion can the Church turn to the Father, be all of God and be capable of His graces and gifts, and also of giving Him glory forever. Jesus as a vine, and the Father as a farmer, are the roots of the Christian community, the foundation of all our faith. The Father is the one who takes care that His project is accomplished through His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
A strong and affectionate hug.
Father José Erinaldo
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