The power to overcome evil

Good News ReflectionWednesday of the Fifth Week of EasterMay 13, 2009
Today's Readings:Acts 15:1-6Ps 122:1-5John 15:1-8http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051309.shtmlAudio:http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_05_13.mp3
The power to overcome evil
How healthy is your branch of the Church? I'm not talking about your parish. As we see in today's Gospel reading, all of us who belong to Christ are part of the same far-reaching vineyard. Jesus is the vine, and because we are all attached to him, we all share the same calling: to bear good fruit.
Why is there so much evil in the world? Why doesn't God raise his almighty hand against war, against abuse, against poverty, against criminals, or against any evil that's corrupting the world and our lives? It's a familiar question. The answer is, HE DOES! But we forget one very important factor.
Jesus and the Bride — the Church — have become one body. He commissioned us — all Christians everywhere — to continue the work he began. He is the vine, and we are the branches that spread out across the earth. He feeds us with the life-blood of his divine vine to give us — who are his earthly body — the power to grow strong and large and bear abundant fruit.
If the branches do not bear good fruit, or ENOUGH good fruit, evil has room to grow and keep on going.
Or to put it into other terms: Jesus conquers evil through his presence in us. First, his body died on the cross for our sins and then conquered death, defeating the power of evil. Now, all those who join themselves to his risen body participate in this victory. (This happens in a very concrete way when we receive the Eucharist.) Connected to Jesus, like grape branches that are connected to their vine, we are strengthened and empowered by his Holy Spirit, which flows through all the healthy branches.
Consider any problem going on in your parish. How would things change if all the clergy and staff and members of ministries were to collaborate in resolving this problem as one body, one huge, interconnected grapevine united to Christ?
There's no value in complaining that there are not enough branches bearing good grapes. We each have a personal responsibility to stay closely connected to Christ and grow the best fruit that we possibly can. How healthy is your own connection to Christ? Are you doing whatever is necessary to prune away everything that works against your joint mission in the Church to overcome evil?
Pruning requires, of course, relying on the Holy Spirit's discernment and the snipping power of our Father's sheers. The more we prune, the healthier our branch gets. Our grapes grow larger and more abundant. Sure it hurts when something gets cut from our lives, but ignoring the need to prune is exactly what allows evil to run rampant in the world. Why? Because it hinders the growth of the good stuff, which is the evil-defeating power of the holiness of Christ that we have flowing within us.
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