After meditating the figure of The Good Shepherd, today we are to hear from Jesus another parable. He starts by saying: "I am…"! This is not simply a way of presentation, but a revelation as God. Those who know The Scriptures remember the answer given by God to Moses when this one asked Him name: "I am who I am"! This is the Name of God, and Jesus many times applied It to Himself. He would use a figure to explain His relationship with us!

Today He tells us "I am the true vine"! A Jew knows immiadetly what to think. The vine and the vineyard are images used often in the Holy Scriptures. They speak of the People of Israel and describe the loving relationship with God! The Holy Prophets and the Psalms use this image to explain the dissapointment of God when the People don’t anwer to His call: He is like the vine dresser who at time waits for mature grapes, and instead find wild and sour grapes. This vineyard shall be left alone!

"I am the true vine": the vine that fulfills the Father, the vine that bears fruit to prepare the wine for the Kingdom, the vine is Jesus! But only Jesus: He is united with the disciples, so that even them form part of the same vine and hence of the same fulfillment of the Father. "You are the branches"! The branches produce the fruit of the vine, hence they are one with it. Jesus wants to encourage the disciples, but also to warn them that they need to remain united with Him. They are not to worry of the fruit of their existence, instead they are to commit themselves to remain united with Him, the Son of God: the fruit shall be there without any doubt. It is not simply to be called Christians, or to hold oneself as one, the disciple need to be truly united with Jesus, eitherwise he risks to be useless and even more, a problem in the community and in the Church, without any meaning in the world, as salt without taste.

This is what the apostle John is saying in his first letter: "Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth"! What does it mean to love with facts? I believe, it means to be at the service, disposable, ready to take upon myself the necessities of my brother or sister in the community. There are many Christians who wont be able to make speeches, or prayers, but are always present when I ask for help. There are Christians who commit themselves week by week the whole year, or for many years, and don’t show up. They know also what it means "to love in deed and in truth", because all they do, they do it because of the Lord, happy that He is the only one that sees them, only He shall reward them! John gives us another conforting parable: if our heart reproaches us, we can trust ourselves to God, who loves us so much as to live in us. We, to be worthy of His love, commit ourselves to obey His commandments. Then, His Spirit shall live in us and guide us and give us the strength we need as we journey here on earth.

Even for the disciples, there are difficult situations, incomprehension and lack of trust within the same Church. St. Paul experienced them in Jerusalem after his conversion. The Book of The Acts of the Apostles tells us of the first steps of the newly converted apostle, his courage, his zeal, and the dangers in which he found himself. He was ready to die for his Lord, knowing that Jesus died on a cross! Paul’s life brought fruit because of his unity to the True Vine, and this was a great love for all, a love "in deeds and in truth".

Today, encouraged by Jesus Himself, we promise to remain in Him, to commit ourselves whole heartedly to His will, to His sacrifice, to His commands. We are to learn this every day, and hence our life shall be always a blessing for ourselves and for all our brothers and sisters in the faith and for all those loved by the Father!