Fifth Sunday of Easter
The Sap of Love
These days many of us are amazed at how we see much of the vegetation that we thought had died in the ice/snow storm in February come to life. It seems that the visible foliage and branches died, but the roots had sap. What we had almost given up on, suddenly has new life at the ground level, as well as below in the roots. These images of nature, vines and branches, offer us so much to think about, to reflect on after over a year of distancing—a kind of dormancy, and most certainly a pruning in our lives.
We all went through a “pruning” experience, whether we chose it or not. What we can choose is to ask ourselves, “What did we learn from the experience?” How are we different? Do we value some things more than before COVID? Have we let some things matter less? How have relationships changed? What have been some of the blessings of our dormancy and our pruning? What has died and what is coming to life?
In Church life, in our parish community, I am hearing and seeing signs of the new in us too! We are telling stories about how we tended our personal and communal growth as “vines and branches” in our Church community. We are looking for signs of new life among us as people, as the St. Francis Community. We have changed! We are identifying deeds and actions that invite us to new relationships, new sprouts of leadership, initiative, and desire to heal divisions among us. We are digging deep to find our roots again. We want to re-connect!
We have been pruned by the Word. The sap in our lives is the Word. We have new life, often revealed to us through the gifts of the Holy Spirit—patience, kindness, joy, resilience, openness, new understanding of ourselves and others. We have opportunities to cherish the “sap” and to discover our rootedness through the Saturday morning reflection tomorrow from 9-11, the Parish ReConnect experiences (both in-person and virtual), and conversations and deeds that are expressions of Easter AWE (Accompaniment, Welcome, and Engagement). We are spreading out our branches and budding forth delights! For this, let us all work and pray!