Journey thru John, Chapter 15: The Fruits of Penance

In the last reflection, I noted that 28 of 31 verses in chapter 14 in my bible were in red, indicating Jesus was speaking and teaching the entire chapter.  This made it hard to enter the scene because there was little description of the setting where this teaching was taking place.

In chapter fifteen, every word of the chapter is in red.  Jesus is teaching the entire time.  This pattern continues for the two chapters that follow as well.  As John moves from the Last Supper to the Passion, he locates four full chapters of Jesus teaching in the interim.  Jesus is giving last instructions to his disciples because He knows what is coming even if they do not.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that all the words are red, Jesus does give us an image that we can focus on and visualize in this chapter.  At the beginning, as an introduction to His subject matter, He starts by talking about vines and branches and pruning and bearing fruit. 

If you were to open up your internet search engine and enter the words “grape vine images,” you would literally get hundreds of pictures of what grape vines look like.  Many of those images will show you vines sagging under the burden of gorgeous green or purple fruit.  Search “grape vine pruning” and you will get hundreds more illustrations telling you how grape vines are trained and pruned. 

Twenty years ago, before I knew anything about St. Francis, I planted a quarter acre vineyard behind my house.  It has not been cared for lately, but there are still vines growing in it.  Someday I hope to have a life simple enough that I will have time to care for that vineyard.  In the meantime, if I want to see well cared for grape vines, I can drive thirty minutes from my house into southern Michigan and go on a winery tour.  Chances are you can do the same just about no matter where you are. 

If you instead walk at the fringes of an open space in the countryside near you and know what to look for, you can probably find grapes growing wild near where you live.  If you found those wild vines in the spring and monitored them over the summer and fall, you would find that they barely set any fruit at all, and that the fruit they do set is small and sickly compared to what you get at the grocery store.  Those vines are never pruned and they spend all their effort creating and sustaining new wood from year to year.  They direct none of their energy toward the production of fruit.     

As Franciscans, we understand that the Creation we dwell in has much to teach us about the God who loved us into being.  As Jesus talks about vines at the beginning of this chapter, He is capitalizing on this truth.  The difference between a pruned, productive vine and the unproductive vines growing wild in the countryside informs the message that Jesus is conveying. 

Read the chapter a couple times.  Then take a little time to ponder and investigate the nature and process of growing grapes.  Take what you learn about grape vine culture and reread the chapter, looking to see how your new knowledge of Creation enhances the spiritual message of Jesus. 

See if you gain any extra insight as you pray over the verse that has captured your attention.

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John Chapter 15, verses 1, 2 and 5:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  I am the vine: you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit: apart from me you can do nothing.”

I have already emphasized repetition in several previous chapters.  When the same words are repeated over and over again in a short space, it’s a sure sign of the importance of the message Jesus is conveying.  At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus uses the word “remain” eight times in four verses.   He also uses a version of the phrase “bear fruit” seven times in the first eight verses. 

The instruction from Jesus to us to “remain in Him” is one that we should easily assimilate as Franciscans.  Paragraph four of our rule, which is the introduction to the Way of Life we have promised to live, is clearly full of this idea.

The rule of life of the Secular Franciscans is this:  to observe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of Saint Francis of Assisi, who made Christ the inspiration and the center of his life with God and people.  

If we emulate Francis and make Christ the inspiration and center of our lives, then we are living out the instruction of Jesus given here.  We are “remaining in Him.”  In the reflection on chapter thirteen, we talked about how “remaining in Him” helps us to “love as He loved.”  Here, by the same commitment to using Jesus as our inspiration, perhaps we can learn something about how to make our lives “bear fruit.”

At first, I was feeling a little apprehensive about going back to this paragraph of the rule so quickly.  I just used it two chapters ago.  I thought, “Isn’t there somewhere else to pull from that will also make the same point?”  Of course there is.  But then I thought that perhaps this paragraph is important enough that it’s a good idea to emphasize it again.  As it says itself, “the rule is this.”  This one sentence is the summary of all that will come after it. 

As always, as Franciscans, it’s still all about our original purpose for embarking on this journey through the gospel of John.  It still comes down to going from gospel to life and life to gospel in a prayerful manner so that we can take the inspiration that comes from “remaining in Christ” and use it as the means by which we can “be fruitful” in our lives with God and His people.

That will remain the basis of what we do and who we are no matter what sources I cite and no matter what quotations I pull from those sources.

I think, perhaps, that it is a good idea to emphasize the versatility of this paragraph again even though I used it such a short time ago.  If Jesus uses repetition in the gospels to underscore His most important messages, I should not feel bad about doing the same.    

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That said, one of those other sources that emphasizes the importance of “remaining in Jesus” is the Prologue to the Rule.  Paragraph four, as the introduction and summary of the Way of Life of a Secular Franciscan, is itself an echo of the Prologue, which is in turn an overall introduction to the entire Rule.  (As a reminder, the Prologue contains the direct words of Francis as expressed in the Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance.)

Chapter one, entitled Concerning Those Who Do Penance, starts like this:

All who love the Lord with their whole heart, with their whole soul and mind, with all their strength and love their neighbors as themselves and hate their bodies with their vices and sins, and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and produce worthy fruits of penance:

Begin by recalling that Penance in the Franciscan charism is not primarily about restitution.  As Franciscans, we understand that restitution without conversion is meaningless, so we choose to emphasize conversion first.  Penance becomes for us a forward looking, positive and optimistic experience.  It will ultimately lead us to joy.  For Francis, a brother or sister of Penance is a person pursuing the conversion that turns one away from the world and toward God. 

In this passage, Francis is describing the characteristics of this person of Penance.  The reason a penitent hates his body with it vices and sins is because the body tends to worldly concern, which tends to turn our faces away from God.  In other words, the body indulged will inhibit our ability to “remain in Jesus.” 

The other phrases are neatly echoed in paragraph four of the Rule.  Those “who love the Lord with their whole heart” are those who “make Christ the inspiration of their lives” and thus are also those who “remain in Jesus.”  Those who “love their neighbors as themselves” are those who “make Christ the center of their lives with God and His people,” another manifestation of “remaining in Jesus.”  Those who “receive the Body and Blood” are those who invite Christ to dwell within, which is an expression of the other side of the word “remain” from the gospel passage, the side where Jesus “remains in us.”

All of this remaining then leads to “bearing fruit” as Jesus describes in the gospel.  The penitent, as a natural result of his conversion, can’t help but express that conversion and his burgeoning closeness with Christ as he moves through the world.  “Producing worthy fruits of penance” are the words Francis uses to describe the manifestation of the presence of Christ in our lives that comes from a life properly oriented and well lived. 

The penitent, by turning toward God, invites God to apply his pruning shears.  God responds by lovingly caring for the branch that is me.  Christ is the Vine.  As a person of Penance residing in Christ, I am a branch firmly attached to that Vine.  When I allow it, God prunes away the vices and sins of my body so that my attachment to the Vine remains healthy and robust.  The Vine nourishes me and enables me to bear fruit.

If I were to be separated from the vine, I would wither and be able to do nothing, just as the gospel quote says.

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The next step for the Franciscan is then to embrace the link between Penance and minority.  We look to occupy that position of minority because we understand that a position of minority is a position oriented toward God.  If we look for worldly gain, if we embrace worldly power, if we seek superiority, then we are rejecting our status as penitents in so much as our face will inevitably be turned away from God by those ambitions.  When we reject that status, we are in fact rejecting our ability to “reside in Jesus” and therefore our ability to “bear fruit.”

In the sources, there is a story about St. Francis and St. Dominic being the guests of Cardinal Hugolino.  This story appears in at least four different places (another manifestation of repetition reinforcing importance).  I am taking my quotes from chapter 49 of The Assisi Compilation.

During their discussions, the Cardinal makes this proposal to the two saints:

“In the early Church, the Church’s shepherds were poor, and men of charity, not on fire with greed.  Why don’t we make bishops and prelates of your brothers who excel in teaching and example.”

The text is humorous in the way it describes the attempts of Francis and Dominic to defer to each other.  In the end, in response to the deference of Francis, Dominic answers first.  Francis then gives his answer:

“My lord, my brothers are called lesser precisely so they will not presume to become greater.  They have been called this to teach them to stay down to earth, and to follow the footprints of Christ’s humility, which in the end will exalt them above others in the sight of saints.  If you want them to bear fruit in the Church of God, keep them in the status in which they were called and hold them to it.  Bring them back down to ground level even against their will.  Never allow them to rise to become prelates.”

The embrace of minority is rooted in the example of Christ.  Jesus did not come to us as a secular ruler.  Nor did He come to us as High Priest.  He came to us as a common man born in a manger, the son of a carpenter, hailing from Galilee, a backwater held in low regard by the people of worldly power in His time.  In His life, He never had a roof over His head or a bed to sleep on that He could rightfully call His own.  These are the footprints of Christ’s humility that Francis is referencing.

Francis understood that the power of the example would be lost if the minority embraced by Jesus was set aside.  Jesus triumphed from His position of humility and minority.  Francis intends for his brothers to triumph the same way.  Those in power will have his brothers as an example to follow, but the example will not be compromised, lest it be lost.  Those in power will have to find the righteous way by reference to this example if they can, just as Francis himself did by rejecting his earthly station in order to follow the example of Jesus, who chose to die on a Cross rather than to fight to gain worldly power as His followers might have wished and expected.

As always, Francis chooses to follow literally his understanding of the poverty of Christ.

What is the result of this choice by Francis?

As the passage indicates, the result is the ability to “bear fruit.”  His followers, by locating themselves in minority and thereby in Penance, maintain their ability to “remain in Jesus.”  They remain branches firmly connected to the Vine.  As they imitate the humility of Christ, they abandon the need to shape themselves and thus allow God to prune them into the shape He wishes them to wear.

The pruning of God then brings forth the “worthy fruits of penance” that Francis speaks of in the Exhortation/Prologue to the Rule.

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The link between being minor and the ability to “reside” in Christ is reinforced dramatically in the introduction to a work called “Of the Tribulations of the Order of Lesser Brothers.”  Understand that while this work is included in the source materials, it is not without controversy.  The author, Angelo Clareno, often found himself on the outskirts of the Franciscan mainstream, mostly because he felt that mainstream did not adhere to Francis’ instructions on minority and poverty closely enough.  (The discussion on the controversies can be found in the introduction to this work in the source materials if you wish to investigate it more thoroughly.)

Clareno presents the following in the context of Jesus instructing Francis:

Therefore the congregation of your brotherhood will be called the religion of lesser ones, so that from the name they might understand that above all they are to be truly humble of heart; since humility is the cloak of My honor and praise, and anyone passing from this life with this habit will find the gates of My kingdom open.

I asked My Father to grant me in this last hour a little poor people, humble, and meek, and mild, who would be like Me in all things, in poverty and humility, and who would be content to have only me; I would come to rest and remain in this people, just as My Father rests and remains in Me:  and this people would rest and remain in Me just as I remain in the Father and rest in His Spirit.  My father gave you to Me, along with those who with their whole heart and with unfeigned faith and perfect charity cling to Me through you; and I will guide and nourish them, and they shall be sons to Me, and I shall be a father to them.

I don’t know how controversial this passage is.  It does not seem so to me.  The link between being minor (“lesser ones”) and “remaining in Christ” rings true to me.  The position of minority and humility that is repeated here again seems to gain importance by the repetition. 

Clareno uses the word nourishment here, which we have used above in the context of the Vine nourishing the healthy branches connected to it so that they might “bear fruit.”

He also provides an echo to the Exhortation/Prologue to the Rule with the words “with their whole heart.”  That echo infers the tie-in to the Franciscan concept of Penance as part of the logic that links all of this together.

I came upon this passage because the text of John chapter 15 is quoted directly here and included in the Index to the source materials.  I pondered whether or not to include it because of the controversy associated with the author.

In the end, I chose to share it because there is something about the boldness of it that spoke to me.  I don’t understand Clareno to be suggesting that he somehow has firsthand knowledge of a conversation between Jesus and Francis.  I am not aware of this being lifted from something earlier in the source material. 

On one hand, I do not think that I would be comfortable placing words in the mouth of Jesus as Clareno has here.  The words Jesus has spoken in the gospel are enough for me.  I often feel inadequate in my attempts to contemplate them, let alone to move beyond that and somehow add to them.

On the other hand, they do feel authentic.  I can see Jesus saying these things to Francis.  They all seem to fit precisely and neatly within my overall understanding of the Franciscan charism.

The text is supportive of the discussion on the verses of John that I am reflecting on.  But in the end, I just wanted you to be exposed to it so that you knew it was there and could react to it on your own terms.  

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There is one portion of the verses that I have mostly ignored so far.  There has been lots of discussion about “residing in Jesus,” vines and branches, “bearing fruit” and pruning.  But there has been little about the clause at the end that says: “apart from me you can do nothing.”

In the introduction, I talked about the wild and unpruned grape vines that might be growing near you.  These vines, I think, speak to this clause.  They represent those who do not embrace Penance.  They are the people who do not “remain in Jesus” and are therefore unable to bear any fruit. 

I bought a house on a lake a couple years ago that was not well cared for.  In the back of the house there was a large tree.  At the base of the tree there was a grape vine that must have been growing in that spot for decades.  The trunk of the vine was bigger around than my thigh.  Its branches extended in every direction, including up into the tree thirty or forty feet.  The vine used the tree as a trellis and had grown so far out of control that it was hard to tell where the vine and the tree started and ended.

It took so much energy for the vine to support all that wood that it had not flowered at all.  There was no fruit of any kind growing on it.

Before my face was turned toward God in penance and conversion and minority, before I set about trying to “remain in Jesus” as this gospel chapter and the Rule call me to, this is what my life was like.  I had so many worldly things going on that I could not provide proper energy to any of them.  All of these different directions drained me, and I did nothing well.  In short, I produced lots of wood going in a myriad of directions and little if any “worthy fruits of penance.”

Apart from God, I was able to do nothing.

Even today, nearly ten years after beginning my Franciscan formation and seven years after my profession, I am still fighting to contain that overgrown and wild vine.  There are still tendrils from that time that I am supporting.  There is still temptation to grow new shoots in new directions that has to be resisted.  My life is nowhere near as simple as I would have it be.  My face is not turned unceasingly toward God.  I am still in need of that ongoing conversion that will allow God access to do the true pruning that needs to be done in my life, the pruning I cannot accomplish on my own.    

Francis, I think, would understand exactly what I am talking about here.  I think it’s the reason why he told Cardinal Hugolino “no” when he wanted to make his brothers prelates.  He knew that if they were allowed this worldly honor, they would soon be like branches of a vine that had grown wildly out of control and become unfruitful.

Here is one more repetition.  This one comes from the conclusion of Chapter 8 of the Little Flowers of St Francis.  It has already been cited at least twice in these reflections.  Francis confirms here the idea that everything we have comes from God, which is a necessary corollary of the idea that “apart from me you can do nothing.”      

And now, brother, listen to the conclusion. Above all the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ grants to his friends, is the grace of overcoming oneself, and accepting willingly, out of love for Christ, all suffering, injury, discomfort and contempt; for in all other gifts of God we cannot glory, seeing they proceed not from ourselves but from God, according to the words of the Apostle, `What hast thou that thou hast not received from God? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?’ But in the cross of tribulation and affliction we may glory, because, as the Apostle says again, `I will not glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Amen.”

If and when we do “bear fruit,” we do it not because of our own efforts, but because the goodness and grace and gifts of God have been worked through us.    

That is only possible when we embrace Penance and turn our faces to God.  It is only possible when we embrace minority and set aside worldly concerns in favor of the inspiration that comes from going from life to gospel and gospel to life.   It’s only possible when we “remain in Jesus” and allow God the Gardener to prune us as branches attached to the Vine that nourishes us through His gospel teaching.

In the end, I cut that grape vine out of the tree in the backyard of that house I bought.  I took all that extra wood and made of pile of it.  And then I burned that pile just like Jesus says in verse six of this chapter.  I then had the tree itself pruned, and it looks great today.  It frames nicely the view from the rear of the house out to the lake and the woods beyond.

I had not thought of that task recently, not until I started reflecting on these gospel verses.  But I am glad to have recalled it, because it is an example of how attentiveness to and caring for Creation can lead us to insights into the teachings that Jesus presents to us throughout the gospels.

But for the recollection to bear fruit, I had to be in a position of minority, humility and Penance with my face turned toward God. When I was cutting that overgrown vine out of that tree, I did not connect it to the gospels in the moment. It was only during this contemplation, when I was firmly oriented on Christ, that the full lesson of my action within Creation came clear.

Only when my inner eye was firmly focused on Jesus could I make the connection and learn the lesson that Jesus intended for me from the moment I started to prune.