Trimming the Tree

School Mass (Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter)

Readings: Acts 15:1-6 / John 15:1-8

Have you ever seen a tree getting a haircut?

No?

Well, it's a little bit funny-looking.

Somebody has to get up on a big ladder and they trim off some of the branches so that, you know, it's a little bit closer in and it doesn't have all these crazy growths coming off of it.

But it really serves a good purpose because some of those branches that branch off from the tree, they're actually sucking, like, life away from the main trunk of the tree.

So you want to keep it pruned nice and close so that the tree itself will keep on growing and it doesn't have all these extraneous things that it's, you know, giving its sap to.

In the same way, our Lord uses that image for us.

We're like trees in God's garden and sometimes we can try to hold on to lots of different things that don't really serve a purpose in our life, interests or activities or opinions or plans.

And really, when we try to hold on to so many things, we get tangled up, we get tired, we can grow kind of wild in the wrong directions.

That's why our Lord tells us today that his Father prunes us.

Pruning is what it's called when you give a tree a haircut, you cut off some of those branches.

It's not meant to hurt the tree but to help us grow in the right way.

And he reminds us, too, that we have to abide in him, which is a fancy word that means remain, stay, stay connected, stay with the Lord.

Not just once in a while but to actually live in him, like a branch lives in the tree, to be that closely connected.

And when we let God prune us, whether it's by maybe letting go of a bad habit that doesn't serve us so well or spending less time on distractions, then we make room for something better.

We make room for the life of God to flow into us more deeply so we can grow in love and joy, peace, patience.

That's real fruit.

So maybe today we can ask, what is there in my life that might need a little pruning?

Where's there one thing that I can either cut back a little bit or offer over to the Father so he can prune it in the right way?

And when we let him take care of us and we abide in his love, and we don't just grow, we flourish and we bear fruit that lasts, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Amen.