Monday, April 29 : Saint Augustine

In the passage of this Gospel where our Lord says that he is the vine and we are the branches, he is speaking as he who is Head of the Church and of us as his members (Eph 5,30) and as “mediator between God and the human race” (1Tm 2,5). For indeed, the vine and its branches share the same nature. It was for this reason that he who was God, of a different nature to our own, became man: so that the human nature he took might be like a vine whose branches we would become… He said to his disciples: “Remain in me as I remain in you.” However, they were not in him in the same way as he was in them. This mutual union brought him no benefit; the gain was all for them. Branches are inseparably united to the vine yet give it nothing; it is from the vine that they receive their life force. The vine, on the other hand, is united to the branches to communicate its life-giving sap to them without receiving back anything from them. This is how Christ remains in his disciples… If Christ had not been man he could not have been ‘vine’. Yet if he had not also been God he could not have communicated this grace to the branches. Because we cannot live without this grace and because death is in the power of our free will, our Lord adds: “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into the fire and they will be burned” (Jn 15,6). Hence, if the wood of the vine is worthless when it no longer remains united to the vine, it is all the more glorious when it does so remain.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team