VITAL CONTACT
According to the Gospel account in John, on the eve of his death, Jesus reveals to his disciples his deepest desire: «Remain in me». He knows their cowardice and mediocrity. On many occasions he’s reprimanded them for their little faith. If they don’t remain vitally united to him, they won’t be able to last.
Jesus’ words couldn’t be clearer or more expressive: «As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me». If they don’t remain firm in what they have learned and lived alongside him, their life will be sterile. If they don’t live by his Spirit, what was begun by him will be extinguished.
Jesus employs emphatic language: «I am the vine, you are the branches». In the disciples there must run the sap that comes from Jesus. They must never forget it. «Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty, for cut off from me you can do nothing». Separated from Jesus, his disciples can’t do anything.
Jesus doesn’t just ask them to remain in him. He also tells them that «His words remain in them». Let them never forget them. Let them live by his Gospel. That is the source from which they must drink. He’s already told them on another occasion: «The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life».
The Spirit of the Risen One remains alive and well today in his Church in many forms, but his invisible and silent presence acquires visible face and concrete voice thanks to the memory saved in the Gospel accounts by those who knew him up close and followed him. In the Gospel we are put into contact with his message, his style of living and his project of God’s reign.
That’s why in the Gospels are enclosed the most powerful force that Christian communities possess in order to regenerate their life. The energy we need to recover our identity as followers of Jesus. Jesus’ Gospel is the pastoral instrument that is most important for the renovation of the Church today.
Many good Christians of our communities only know the Gospels «second hand». All they know about Jesus and about his message comes from what they have been able to reconstruct based on the words of preachers and catechists. They live their faith without having a personal contact with «Jesus’ words».
It’s difficult to imagine a «new evangelization» without facilitating for people a more direct and immediate contact with the Gospels. Nothing has more evangelizing force than the experience of listening together to Jesus’ Gospel based on the questions, problems, sufferings and hopes of our time.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
