As an avid gardener I am constantly amazed how God uses the natural world as a living parable of the supernatural order. My garden includes 15 grape vines which in summer literally explode with new shoots and foliage. Every vine dresser knows that in order to produce large and abundant grapes vigilant pruning is required, so I spend many hours cutting back excess foliage. While thus engaged I am constantly mindful of Christ’s teaching, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does He prunes so that it bears more fruit.” (Jn 15:1,2)

What I never fully understood until I began raising vines was just how few branches on a vine actually produce fruit. I have seen new shoots, or suckers, which can run for 8 or 10 feet without ever sprouting a single runty grape cluster. In fact, I have noticed with certain varieties that 90% of shoots which branch off from the main vine will never produce a single grape. These must all be cut away in order to redirect the vine’s energy into the branches that are actually forming fruit. And pruning is not a one time thing but a continual process throughout the entire growing season. In other words, the vast majority of any vine’s growth is ultimately removed and cast into the mulch pile. It is no accident that Our Lord used the analogy of dressing vines because his listeners in that intensive grape growing culture around the Mediterranean would have clearly understood his meaning, namely that “Many are called but few are chosen.”

It is not enough to simply know about Christ or even to believe in Him in a casual or haphazard way. To wear the label of a nominal Catholic or a Christian who has “accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior” is to be like that long branch with lots of beautiful leaves but no fruit. For those whose faith is all about interior feelings yet have nothing concrete to show for it, they are like those barren branches cut away from the source of life which is the vine. “What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works?… So also faith of itself, without works, is dead.” Jas 2:14;17)