STOPPING  TO  TASTE A GRAPE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday After Easter B is, “Stopping To Taste a Grape.”

“Uuuuuum!”  Want another grape?

Those who stopped to listen to Jesus - asked, “Where did this man get all his wisdom? Isn’t he the carpenter’s son?”

They must have heard Jesus giving them a saying or telling them a story - something about how we treat one another - how it ought to be of love - or we should hear our inner instincts for forgiveness. They must have heard him say something that was clever, challenging and creative. It might have been a parable that grabbed them. Whatever it was, it triggered goodness in them - in a way nobody else spoke.

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS

When and where and what triggered Jesus to squeeze  some wisdom from some grapes?

Was it a hot and thirsty day and Mary walked into the carpenter shop with plate filled with fresh grapes?  Did they have a vine with delicious grapes in the back of their house in Nazareth? Was it some grapes Mary bought in the market place? Was it from a sermon by the local rabbi at their local synagogue? The rabbi read some words from Isaiah - and then talked about being a good grape and not being a sour grape?

Or was it some morning or afternoon when Jesus went out by himself into the countryside? He spotted some grapes on a vine and he had a feast on grapes. Did he stop by a vine and study what he saw?  Good and bad grapes! There’s a message here. He saw vines with grapes. What happened here with these grapes that had withered? Where did Jesus get his wisdom about wheat and grapes?  Did Jesus like to sit under trees and watch farmers at work? Did he notice the birds or the air - and the foxes of the field? Did he know that wolves sneak up on sheep and grab them and kill them?

Did Jesus think about the meaning of bread and wine from the annual Passover meal? Did he watch workers in vineyards picking grapes - crushing grapes - throwing grapes into a grape press  - and the juice from the grapes - like red blood was rolling down the wooden sluices of the grape press.

Did he come up with his ideas about crushed wheat and crushed grapes dying - so others would receive life because of the sacrifice of seeds and the work of workers in the vineyard and the sickle cutting of wheat in the fields - and then the crushed wheat becoming flour - mushed together with yeast - and then baked to bring us bread.

Did he see a lamb slaughtered - realized it was sacrificed to feed and nourish a family?

Is this the way he learned - in the great classroom called life?

VISITING A WINERY

I’ve often heard people who visited a winery say it was a positive experience. I hoped I’d get to one eventually. I finally got to see one.

I listened to the owner point out how everything worked. I saw him give a signal to his wife to pour out different wines for the visitors - and on the table was bread and cheese - on small plates for all to eat.

We priests joke about the eternal question:  “Does this count for Sunday Mass?”  Has anyone having small pieces of bread and small glasses of wine at a winery ever with a smile on their face say, “Does this count for Sunday Mass?” Or at least notice how close it was to what a mass is like?

Well, I finally go to a winery. I don’t drink, but it was a learning experience. I watched folks starting to smile. I watched them as they paused to sip some wine and nibble on some bread. I only drink wine at Mass - but only a sip.

Well, when folks started to drink different types of wine - and buy some bottles, I walked outside - away from the crowd our tourists I was with. I went up to rows of grapes on the vine. At the end of a whole row, I spotted that the whole end of that row - had dead branches - dried grapes - dead fruit.  In an instant, I got the message.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In an instant I got what Jesus said, as found in today’s gospel.

We are grapes - connected to the vine. Separate ourselves from the vine - from Christ the living vine - and we die because we’re not bearing fruit for others.

At times we need to be pruned.  Sometimes life is sacrifice. Sometimes life is all about dying to self - for others - and that reality gives life to us. In giving, in dying to self, for others, we experience new life.

Life is all about communion, remaining, being with Christ and in communion with each other. None of us are the only grape on the vine.

CONCLUSION

Get these messages about wine and the vine and we get the meaning of the Mass.

Get this and we get glimpses of what Jesus was saying and doing with his life.

Amen.