“What is the source of your life? What gets you up in the morning? What gives you hope when you’re in despair? What fulfills you? What is the source of your life? What nurtures and sustains your life? Have you ever thought about that, the root, the one source of your life? Is it the amount of money that you have? Is that where you find your security, the source of your life to go forward? If you just had the right amount things would be much better, you’d be less anxious, you wouldn’t have to worry much. Is that the source of your life? Is it the prestige? If more people recognize how great you were then things would be much better. Is that the source of your life? Is the source of your life being right, that you always have to win the argument that you have to be right, if not it just upsets you, things don’t go well? What is the source of your life?
In these Easter weeks after our Easter Resurrection, the Gospels show what Christ does when he appears before people, but not only that, he tells us how our lives should be and today he tells us what the source of our life should be that Christ should be the source of our life. He gives us that image, ‘I am the true vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in my and I in him will bear much fruit.’ that a branch cannot bear fruit without being attached to the vine. Christ continues in the scriptures to tell us what gives life to us, what is the point of our life, what nurtures and sustains us in our life. The way to a fulfilled life is through Christ. He says, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have life in them.’ He says, ‘I am the way the truth and the life.’ He continues to call us to Him as the source and he says, ‘Remain in me.’ Remain in Him. He calls us to remain in him just like how say the sun: without the sun the is no light. It’s the source of light or say in water, fish out of water. It needs to stay in the water to stay alive. As humans we need to remain in this type of atmosphere to breathe and so too in our spiritual life we must remain in Christ to live. We must remain in Him to live and he tells us that, ‘If you do so you will bear fruit, but if not you will not bear fruit.’ One of the striking things that he says here, ‘Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit because without me you can do nothing.’ Sometimes in our lives today we can hear that statement as being non-inclusive. That’s a nice word these days. It’s kind of the big virtue of the world to be inclusive, but that’s not what he’s talking about being exclusive. No. It’s not imposing something upon another, it’s the truth. If you go to a doctor or a nutritionist. You had a heart attack and he says, ‘Well tell me about your eating habits.’ and you eat stacks of pancakes with a lot of syrup and butter in the morning. You have jelly filled donuts, Twinkies, burgers and ice cream at night and he says, ‘Ok, if you want to continue living then you gotta change that diet.’
‘Well doctor, how can you impose that on me?’
No, it’s the truth. It’s how the body works. He’s showing you how the body works. Now it’s your choice to listen, to acknowledge how you’ve gone wrong and correct it, but so too with our spiritual life. If we want to have a happy life, a fulfilled life, follow the way, the will of God then we must remain in Him and in doing so we listen to His words. We stay close to the sacraments. That’s how we remain in Christ. ‘But how can you impose that on me? Is that the only way?’ Well Christ says it is. ‘You can do nothing without me.’ He says, ‘I am the way the truth and the life.’ and when we take that seriously then we realize the words of Christ are hard. That means we have to just like the person with their diet. We have to start correcting parts of our life back, acknowledge them and so that we will remain in Him. ‘Remain in me.’ Do you remain with Christ in your life? Is he the source of your life?
In the Church we say the source and summit of our faith is the Eucharist which you are here today. We are fed by the words of scripture which I am speaking about today, but not only that, us as Catholics have a beautiful privilege to receive the creator, to receive the Word that was made flesh so that it will nurture and sustain our lives so that we go out in the world we will remain in Him and bear fruit so every desire that you have will be fulfilled, but through Christ. Are you willing to let go of the other sources of your life not that they’re not good, but so you can trust in Christ, trust that He will fulfill every desire, every hope you have, but only if you remain in Him. So as you come before the Lord where Christ is truly present before you in the Eucharist, let us have the strength and the courage to ask the Lord to open our hearts, open our minds and our souls to see where we are not letting him into our lives? What are the other sources that we rely on in life? Give us the courage to let go of that so that we may remain in Him and bear much fruit. Amen.”