From: 1 John 3:18-24
Loving One Another
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[18] Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
[19] By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him [20] whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. [21] Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
[22] And we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. [23] And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. [24] All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
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Commentary:
11-22. St John begins this important passage on the subject of brotherly love with the same elevated tone as in 1:5. As usual with his style, it is difficult to discern any rigid arrangement of concepts, but there is a clear connection of ideas, expressed in paradoxes and contrasts. 1) Statement of the central theme--the commandment of love (v. 11). 2) Its counterpoint is the sin of Cain (v. 12); those who do not practise brotherly love are as much murderers as he was (vv. 13-15). 3) Our model (a new contrast) is Christ, who gave his life for us (v. 16); brotherly love, following our Lord’s example, must go beyond mere talk; it must show itself in deed and in truth (vv. 17-18). 4) The consequence of brotherly love is total confidence in God, who knows everything (vv. 19-22).
This passage of St John has led to many beautiful, touching commentaries by the Fathers of the Church. “I believe this is the pearl the merchant in the Gospel was looking for, which when he found it led him to sell everything he had and buy it (Mt 13:46). This is the precious pearl--Charity; unless you have it, everything else you have is of no use to you; and if you have it alone, you need nothing else. Now you see with faith; later on you will see with intuitive vision; if we love now, when we do not see, what degree of love shall we not attain when we do see! And, meanwhile, what should we be doing? We should be loving the brethren. You may be able to say, I have not seen God; but can you say, I have not seen man? Love your brother. If you love your brother whom you see, you will also see God, because you will see charity, and God dwells within it” (St Augustine, "In Epist. Ioann. Ad Parthos", 5,7).
16-18. From Jesus the Christian learns what love is and what demands it makes--not only through his sublime teaching (like that about the Good Shepherd in John 10:1ff or his discourse at the Last Supper) but above all by his example: “he laid down his life for us”, by dying on the cross. We “ought” to do the same; the Greek word St John uses implies a duty. That is, the precept of brotherly love imposes an obligation for two reasons--by the very nature of things, since all men are brothers and children of God; and because we are indebted to Christ and must respond to the infinite love he showed by giving his life for us.
Using an example very like that in the Letter of St James (cf. Jas 2:15-16), he shows that true love expresses itself in actions: anyone who “closes his heart” when he sees others in need does not truly love. The saints have constantly reminded us of St John’s teaching: “what the Lord desires is works. If you see a sick woman to whom you can give some help, never be affected by the fear that your devotion will suffer, but take pity on her: if she is in pain, you should feel pain too; if necessary, fast so that she may have your food, not so much for her sake as because you know it to be your Lord’s will. That is true union with his will. Again, if you hear someone being highly praised, be much more pleased than if they were praising you” (St Teresa of Avila, "Interior Castle", V, 3, 11).
19-22. The Apostle reassures us; God knows everything; not only does he know our sins and our frailties, he also knows our repentance and our good desires, and he understands and forgives us (St Peter, on the Lake of Tiberias, made the same confession to Jesus: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you”: Jn 21:17).
St John’s teaching on divine mercy is very clear: if our conscience tells us we have done wrong, we can seek forgiveness and strengthen our hope in God; if our conscience does not accuse us, our confidence in God is ardent and bold, like that of a child who has loving experience of his Father’s tenderness. The love of God is mightier than our sins, Pope John Paul II reminds us: “When we realize that God’s love for us does not cease in the face of our sin or recoil before our offences, but becomes even more attentive and generous; when we realize that this love went so far as to cause the Passion and Death of the Word made flesh who consented to redeem us at the price of his own blood, then we exclaim in gratitude: ‘Yes, the Lord is rich in mercy’, and even: ‘The Lord is mercy” ("Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia", 22).
This confidence in God makes for confidence in prayer: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you" (Jn 15:7; cf. 14:13f; 16:23, 26-27).
23-24. The commandments of God are summed up here in terms of love for Jesus and love for the brethren. "We cannot rightly love one another unless we believe in Christ; nor can we truly believe in the name of Jesus Christ without brotherly love" (St Bede, "In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc."). Faith and love cannot be separated (cf. Gal 5:6); our Lord himself told us what would mark his disciples out--their love for one another (Jn 13:34-35).
Keeping the commandments confirms to the Christian that he is abiding in God: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love" (Jn 15:10). Moreover, it ensures that God abides in his soul, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: "If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever" (Jn 14:15-16).
"May God be your house and you God's; dwell in God that God may dwell in you. God dwells in you to support you; you dwell in God in order not to fall. Keep the commandments, have charity" ("In 1 Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.").
From: John 15:1-8
The Vine and the Branches
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [1] "I am the vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. [2] Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit. [3] You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. [4] Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. [5] I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. [6] If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. [8] By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples."
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Commentary:
1. This comparison of the chosen people with a vine was used in the Old Testament: Psalm 80 speaks of the uprooting of the vine in Egypt and its re-planting in another land; and in Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard (5:1-7) God complains that despite the care and love He has lavished on it, His vineyard has yielded only wild grapes. Jesus previously used this imagery in His parable about the murderous tenants (Matthew 21:33-43) to signify the Jew's rejection of the Son and the calling of the Gentiles. But here the comparison has a different, more personal meaning: Christ explains that He Himself is the true vine, because the old vine, the original chosen people, has been succeeded by the new vine, the Church, whose head is Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9). To be fruitful one must be joined to the new, true vine, Christ: it is no longer a matter of simply belonging to a community but of living the life of Christ, the life of grace, which is the nourishment which passes life on to the believer and enables him to yield fruits of eternal life. This image of the vine also helps understand the unity of the Church, Christ's mystical body, in which all the members are intimately united with the head and thereby are also united to one another (1 Corinthians 12:12-26; Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 4:15-16).
2. Our Lord is describing two situations: that of those who, although they are still joined to the vine externally, yield no fruit; and that of those who do yield fruit but could yield still more. The Epistle of St. James carries the same message when it says that faith alone is not enough (James 2:17). Although it is true that faith is the beginning of salvation and that without faith we cannot please God, it is also true that a living faith must yield fruit in the form of deeds. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). So, one can say that in order to produce fruit pleasing to God, it is not enough to have received Baptism and to profess the faith externally: a person has to share in Christ's life through grace and has to cooperate with Him in His work of redemption.
Jesus uses the same verb to refer to the pruning of the branches as He uses to refer to the cleanness of the disciples in the next verse: literally the translation should run: "He cleanses him who bears fruit so that he bear more fruit". In other words, He is making it quite clear that God is not content with half-hearted commitment, and therefore He purifies His own by means of contradictions and difficulties, which are a form of pruning, to produce more fruit. In this we can see an explanation of the purpose of suffering: "Have you not heard the Master Himself tell the parable of the vine and the branches? Here we can find consolation. He demands much of you for you are the branch that bears fruit. And He must prune you `ut fructum plus afferas": to make you bear more fruit'.
"Of course: that cutting, that pruning, hurts. But, afterwards, what richness in your fruits, what maturity in your actions" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 701).
3. After washing Peter's feet Jesus had already said that His Apostles were clean, though not all of them (cf. John 13:10). Here, once more, He refers to that inner cleansing which results from accepting His teachings. "For Christ's word in the first place cleanses us from errors, by instructing us (cf. Titus 1:9) [...]; secondly, it purifies our hearts of earthly affections, filling them with desire for Heavenly things [...]; finally, His word purifies us with the strength of faith, for `He cleansed their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:9)" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on St. John, in loc.").
4-5. Our Lord draws more conclusions from the image of the vine and the branches. Now He emphasizes that anyone who is separated from Him is good for nothing, like a branch separated from the vine. "You see, the branches are full of fruit, because they share in the sap that comes from the stem. Otherwise, from the tiny buds we knew just a few months back, they could not have produced the sweet ripe fruit that gladdens the eye and make the heart rejoice. Here and there on the ground we may find some dry twigs, lying half-buried in the soil. Once they too were branches of the vine; now they lie there withered and dead, a perfect image of barrenness: `apart from Me, you can do nothing'" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 254).
The life of union with Christ is necessarily something which goes far beyond one's private life: it has to be focused on the good of others; and if this happens, a fruitful apostolate is the result, for "apostolate, of whatever kind it be, must be an overflow of the interior life" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 239). The Second Vatican Council, quoting this page from St. John, teaches what a Christian apostolate should be: "Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the Church's whole apostolate. Clearly then, the fruitfulness of the apostolate of lay people depends on their living union with Christ; as the Lord Himself said: `He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing'. This life of intimate union with Christ in the Church is maintained by the spiritual helps common to all the faithful, chiefly by the active participation in the Liturgy. Laymen should make such a use of these helps that, while meeting their human obligations in the ordinary conditions of life, they do not separate their union with Christ from their ordinary life; but through the very performance of their tasks, which are God's will for them, actually promote the growth of their union with Him" ("Apostolicam Actuositatem", 4).
6. If a person is not united to Christ by means of grace he will ultimately meet the same fate as the dead branches--fire. There is a clear parallelism with other images our Lord uses--the parables of the sound tree and the bad tree (Matthew 7:15-20), the dragnet (Matthew 13:49-50), and the invitation to the wedding (Matthew 22:11-14), etc. Here is how St. Augustine comments on this passage: "The wood of the vine is the more contemptible if it does not abide in the vine, and the more glorious if it does abide....For, being cut off it is profitable neither for the vinedresser nor for the carpenter. For one of these only is it useful--the vine or the fire. If it is not in the vine, it goes to the fire; to avoid going to the fire it must be joined to the vine" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 81, 3).