Bishop Barron's Daily Gospel Reflection … Participants, not worshipers

Word on Fire Ministry | 5-13-2020 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
John 15:1-8
Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declares that he is the vine, and we are the branches who must remain in him. If we ourselves do not participate in who Jesus was, we miss the spiritual power that he meant to unleash.

If John’s Gospel is any indication, Jesus does not want worshipers but followers, or better, participants: "I am the vine, you are the branches; live on in me; my body is real food and my blood real drink. The one who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him."

The beautifully organic images that John presents are meant, it seems to me, to communicate the life-changing power of the Incarnation: the Logos became flesh, our flesh, so that we might allow the divine energy to come to birth in us.

Much of this is summed up in the oft-repeated patristic adage that God became human that humans might become God. Many of our great theologians and spiritual masters speak unselfconsciously of "divinization"—that is to say, a sharing in the symbiosis that is the Incarnation, as the proper goal of human life.

[aimhigh]

Jesus does not want worshipers but followers

That is a bizarre statement to make. It pits worship against obedience, which is a false argument. It makes worship appear unnecessary. Jesus wants worshipers who are followers.

[Marchmain]

The community gathering to share a meal, focused on their own emotions rather than uplifting the mind and heart to God. This is the new theology. The Eucharist is no longer the blessed sacrament, it’s a validation of how special you are, not a non-bloody sacrifice. It’s about what we can get from God, not about adoring, praising, thanking and submitting ourselves to him.

[MurphsLaw]

Sorry just saw this......
No ... You miss the point.....its in the same vein of:
Matt 16:24
+++Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. +++

In today's Gospel..... And you have to focus on this Gospel and not an all encompassing Singular ideal......Throughout the New Testament, Jesus calls us to participate in his nature..... Sort of a grafting process.......

"2 Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

worshipping in this context, becomes the easy part.....

[MurphsLaw]

It all part of the splintering process..... caveat emptor

In keeping with the natural theme of today's Gospel......

+++"
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.