SPEAKER_00: There's a fight in the first reading, and it's not a small one.
SPEAKER_00: It says, unless you're circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a minor disagreement.
SPEAKER_00: That's a claim about salvation itself.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what actually saves you?
SPEAKER_00: What actually makes you right with God?
SPEAKER_00: And notice what's happening beneath the surface.
SPEAKER_00: These are not bad people.
SPEAKER_00: These are believers.
SPEAKER_00: They have accepted Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They are trying to bring something else alongside him as necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Christ plus this.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, but let's add this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, but also the old system, the old markers, the old way of defining who we are and how we belong.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not careful, that instinct is still alive.
SPEAKER_00: We rarely say it bluntly, but we live it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus plus my achievements, Jesus plus my image, Jesus plus how I control things, Jesus plus all of these successes and how I want to see my life and how I need to accomplish this or that.
SPEAKER_00: And then slowly, gradually, the center shifts.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is no longer enough.
SPEAKER_00: He becomes part of the equation, yes, but not the whole.
SPEAKER_00: That is why this debate matters so much.
SPEAKER_00: This is why they go to Jerusalem, because if you get this wrong, you do not just tweak Christianity, you lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we listen to the gospel, because Jesus answers the question in a way that cuts through all the noise, I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: Without me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say you can do little without me.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say you can get started on your own and I will help you finish.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says nothing.
SPEAKER_00: This is a direct challenge to the illusions of self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says something that should both console us and unsettle us.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch that bears fruit he prunes so that it may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, even when things are going well, even when you're trying to live the faith, God is still going to cut.
SPEAKER_00: Not to punish, but to purify.
SPEAKER_00: Not to destroy, but to increase life.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us interpret pruning as rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Something gets taken away, a plan falls apart.
SPEAKER_00: That prayer that we've been praying for, a comfort is removed, a door closes, and we immediately think, well, something's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: God must be distant.
SPEAKER_00: I must have failed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Pruning is a sign that you are connected.
SPEAKER_00: The real danger is not being cut, the real danger is being disconnected.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither, he says.
SPEAKER_00: This is strong language, but it's honest.
SPEAKER_00: A branch only has life as long it is united to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: The moment it separates, it may look the same for a while, but the life is already draining out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where this meets your life in a very concrete way.
SPEAKER_00: You can be busy, productive, very successful, your calendar jam-packed, on the outside it looks beautiful, but still spiritually disconnected.
SPEAKER_00: You can be doing a lot, saying the right things, even involved in good works, and yet interiorly not remaining in him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is clear, fruit does not come from activity, it comes from a union.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever remains in me and I him will bear much fruit, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Not whoever tries harder, not whoever is more impressive, whoever remains is the one.
SPEAKER_00: The word remain is everything.
SPEAKER_00: It means staying, abiding, not drifting, not substituting, not replacing Christ with something else, not adding to something else.
SPEAKER_00: Even something religious.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question that cuts through everything today.
SPEAKER_00: What are you relying on for your spiritual life?
SPEAKER_00: Is it actually Christ or is it Christ plus something else?
SPEAKER_00: And even more honestly, are you remaining in him or are you just orbiting around him?
SPEAKER_00: Because there is a difference.
SPEAKER_00: One leads to real fruit, lasting fruit, the kind that glorifies the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The other eventually dries up, even if it looks alive for a while.
SPEAKER_00: So, my brothers and sisters, if you want a real spiritual life, not a spiritual, not a superficial one, not a performative one, one that you have to come back to this or that again and again.
SPEAKER_00: No, stay connected.
SPEAKER_00: Remain in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Because without Him and only Him, you can do a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00: But none of them will have life unless you remain in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.