“Without Jesus we can do nothing”. It is very true. Jesus is very important in our life. In John 15:1-8 Jesus tells us that He is the true vine, His Father the vine dresser and we are the branches.

This is a very important passage because there are many secrets in it. There are two most important secrets in this Bible passage that we will see. 

We will discuss the above versus one by one. In the first two (John 15:1-2) Jesus says ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.’ So, the Lord God will prune us. He will remove every branch that does not bear fruit. 

God has given us so many talents, so many blessings, so many capacities, and so many good things, good fruits. If you do not use the gifts which God has given us, it will slowly disappear. Even the gifts and charisms and fruits of the Holy Spirit – if you do not use it, it will slowly disappear.

It may not be taken back but it will disappear. So that is something very important. It is true that God does not take back the gifts he has given us, but, it can become inactive. 

Many people, when the first time they have the gift of tongue, they use it so frequently and become so fluent and they get new words. 

After some time when they get busy in their work or may be studies or some other worldly things, they suddenly stop using it. 

When they stop using it, slowly the fluency disappears and then they are not able to practice or use the gift of tongue. They will have to start again from the beginning.

This is applicable for all the gifts – gift of word of knowledge, gift of healing. God has given us the gift of healing. We need to use it by praying for others. It need not be by going and praying over people, by laying hands, but we need to pray for them. 

If you do not use it, slowly the power will diminish. It will slowly be suppressed. So that is exactly what the Lord says, “I am the true vine. HE removes every branch in me that bears no fruit and then every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruits” 

Suppose you are using some gift for e.g. the gift of preaching or maybe the gift of singing. Then in order to use it more powerfully God will prune you. 

For example, I have the gift of preaching and God wants me to use this gift to my maximum capacity. If there is anything that is blocking my gift of preaching, he will slowly remove it. 

If I do not get rid of it, He will put me into a situation where I will have to reject it. Then it won’t be easy for me to have any attachment to the things or people. 

Even if I have something, slowly I will have to cut it off. There will always be some thorns following me, so that I will always be depending on God. 

It is the same way, if you have the gift of singing or any other gift and you are growing. The Lord wants you to use this gift more powerfully but you have a hot tempered character or hot temperedness, or maybe some other bad habit, then the Lord knows you may not be able to use this gift in his fullness.

Therefore God will prune those areas. Then you may wonder I am doing the ministry of preaching, ministry of singing and ministry of this, but why I am facing these struggles? Why am I being tormented, why am I tortured? 

My dear brothers and sisters, God wants to use you. There are some blocks.

Something is hindering your ministry. God is pruning you. God wants you to be holy. 

Sometimes there is a tendency for some people. When God prunes you through some experiences, we may tend to believe that this is evil attack and just ignore it.

We should not ignore all these so-called experiences in your spiritual growth. Do not just wash it off and say it’s an evil attack. It need not always be evil attack. If God permits an evil attack in your life that means there is a reason.

There is a reason why God permits some evil attacks. There is something that we may have to prune. If we do not prune it, God will prune it. 

This evil attack which God permitted may be a kind of pruning that God is permitting in our life. Therefore my dear brothers and sisters do not just reject every problem that comes in your life and say oh this is evil spirit. 

(Do not say) somebody did some black magic against my family and someone has done something against me and then just blame people. It won’t help you. If some evil attack is taking place in your family that God willed, then there is a reason.

If there is a mess here, there is a message there. God wants to speak to us something special. Therefore we need to see – why am I going through this tough time in the ministry. Why am I going through this tough time in my relationship with my husband or wife? Why am I going through this? 

Then we may have to do some homework and see what is blocking us from going closer to God. Am I getting more attached to certain people? Am I giving more importance to my life partner than God? Am I giving more importance to my job than God? 

Something that God wants to prune and that is the reason we go through these struggles. That is why the Bible says every branch that bears fruit He prunes.

Some people think okay I am a powerful preacher, I am saving so many people, I’m going around and preaching and I’m doing evangelization so I will be safe.

Yes you will be safe. But it does not mean you will have no suffering. It does not mean you will have no problem. It does not mean your path will be full of roses. 

But remember there will be thorns all the way because He wants to prune. He does not just want some labourers in the vineyard. He wants you to be united to him. 

Therefore anything that blocks you, He will prune it. Therefore the Bible says every branch that bears fruit He prunes to make it bear more fruit so that we may give.  

That is why the devil knows if we allow ourselves to be pruned, if we allow ourselves to be purified, then we will be more powerful. We will be able to use the gifts and charisms more powerfully. We will produce loads of fruits.

Therefore the devil will give you wrong information and say do not worry man, you are okay. There is evil affliction. Somebody has done some black magic against you. That is what you are going through. You are okay, perfectly okay. 

I think somebody who is among your group has got evil affliction and that is why you have this problem. So better you keep them aloof and keep them off from you. 

This is how the devil gives you some wrong information and not allowing you to focus on yourself but instead he will make you to focus on your life partner, your companions, your ministry members and blame all of them. 

This will block your ministry. Then you will not grow. Then you will not grow as a family, as a family member, as a child of God. God will not be able to (prune you). 

We are not allowing God to prune. But at the same time remember dear brothers and sisters, sometimes when we do not cooperate with God to be pruned, then God may permit us to be completely given in the hand of the evil one so that we may be completely purified. 

There are so many words of God supporting this. We will see to it in the coming days. Therefore my dear brothers and sisters that is what happened to King Saul. 

You know God departed (from him) because he was not ready to be pruned. Though he was the king there were lots of blocks for him – pride, selfishness, self-centeredness. Therefore God allowed him to be pruned. 

How his own citizens started praising David more than him. Until then everyone was praising King Saul. Suddenly his citizens forgot him. They started praising David – a young boy, a shepherd boy. 

Then Saul was so shattered. He started to think something is gone wrong. He is the enemy for me. He looked at David and said he is the block. 

But God permitted this so that he should know that there is some block in him. Instead of focusing on him, he focused on David. All throughout his life, we read, he was focusing on David – how to get rid of him. 

You know what happened. Since he was busy using all his capacity to get rid of David (as a result of this self-centeredness, the lack of cooperation with God to be pruned), he was got rid of. He was removed. He lost his kingship. He committed suicide. David came and sat on this kingship. 

My brothers and sisters God permits certain situations around us – maybe suddenly some people who were so close to us become enemies. Some people start pointing out certain mistakes. 

Suddenly something goes wrong around us – maybe you lost a job, maybe some other crisis in your family, maybe your children are disobeying and maybe something goes wrong. 

Then suddenly you may panic. You may be confused what is gone wrong. Then evil will tell you she is the reason, he is the reason, that person is the reason, your neighbour is the reason, the black magic is the reason, or the evil spirit is the reason. 

Do not listen to the evil one. He is trying to hide inside of you. He is trying to protect himself from being revealed. 

Then when something goes wrong, even when you are connected to God, go back to yourself. Go to yourself and see where did I go wrong? Where did I make a mistake? What was it that is blocking the love of God? What is it that is blocking us? 

There will be something which God will remind you, reveal to you. If you are ready to cooperate, God will just open the doors one after another without any hesitation. Because he is so happy that you are cooperating with him. 

Then just ask yourself. Find out a time and excuse yourself from all the busy schedules. Go and close the door and sit inside the home or sit inside the chapel and pray together with the Lord. 

Say Lord where did I go wrong. What am I doing here? Why am I suffering this? Is there anything that I need to correct? So this is what we need to ask and then the Lord will one by one open everything to you

So this is exactly what God is telling us. Let’s read once again – “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit, every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” 

Verse three – “you have already been cleansed”. So now how is this pruning taking place? You may ask “Fr. I am ready to be pruned, but how do I get pruned”? The Lord wants to tell, you have already been (cleansed).

You know to the disciples, Jesus said ‘you have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you’. Then how is this pruning taking place? 

When we listen to the word and accept it in our heart, we are getting purified. When you listen about forgiveness and then are ready to forgive, you’re getting purified. 

When you listen about holiness and the word of God connected to holiness, then you have a strong desire to be holy. Then you are trying your best to be holy, you’re getting purified. 

This is why Bible says “you have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you”. Therefore we should start reading the Bible, start listening to the preaching, start listening and be obedient to the word of God. 

Then you will see the pruning, cleansing, and purification taking place in your life. Then it makes God’s work easier and it will help you to not fall into bigger problems, bigger pruning. You may only have to go through small, small pruning because you’re cooperating with God. 

Dear brothers and sisters this is very important. That is why we need to find time to read the Bible every day. Read and listen to the word of God. Listen to the preaching. It is compulsory. Many people, many Christians, many Catholics, they do not know the Bible.

If we ask them to find the Bible they will find it from under the bed or somewhere. It is kept somewhere. They will somehow manage (to find it). After half an hour they will come with the Bible and say Fr. somehow I have got the Bible. 

(They) will show you the Bible which was untouched for the last centuries. Then they will just open and they do not know where is Matthew, where is Luke. They will search in the beginning the table of contents.

This is how many Christians are. They have no clue where Matthew is and where Revelation is. They may search for Revelation in Genesis. So this is what happens to many Christians. 

This should not be so in our case. We should have familiarity with the word of God. We should know where exactly the New Testament and Old Testament are. 

We should know what Jesus spoke. Every word should touch us and we should change. Only then the cleansing takes place. If we do not cooperate with God to be cleansed, then God will come in and God will do a cleansing that may be difficult. 

I have seen many people who want to grow but they do not know how to grow. But God puts them into problems, just like the Israelites were caught up in the problem when God was taking them out of Egypt. 

They were caught in one after another problem after problems. God permitted them to be in problem – first in front of the red sea, then no food, then no water and likewise. Every time they had a problem and then God use to come. When they call God, God comes and helps them.

My brothers and sisters I remember one gentleman who came to our retreat centre some years ago. He never read Bible and he never used to pray. He never used to go for retreats. He was against all charismatic movements, Bible reading and saying hallelujah and praise the Lord. 

He used to make fun of them because he thought he’s a traditional christian and he has more than two thousand years of tradition. That is what he says, he thinks and then he was caught up in a big problem. 

He was in jail for some days. At the end he was completely broken and his family was broken. Then he came for retreat to our retreat centre. 

Father spoke to him and then he said Fr. I am ready to do anything. Please give me some shelter. For some days I want to live here and pray. 

Then he started to stay in the retreat centre. (He) then started to listen to the word of God and started to take the Bible for the first time and then started listening to the preaching one after another. Not one retreat (but) many months he attended retreats.

My dear brothers and sisters, if you think you have no time to attend one retreat; God will give you a big time and will have more time to attend many retreats. It is better we find out time and attend. 

This man he attended lots of retreats and he was touched and he changed and he said nobody told me this. He said, the first expression, nobody told me all these things in all my life. 

Then I asked him, have you ever gone to any church to listen to the word of God? He was telling me he used to make sure to go for Holy Mass after the homily. Because he used to think the priest is taking too much of time to speak. It is too much of talk and (so) he used to come for holy mass after the homily and now he says nobody told me. 

My dear brothers and sisters remember if you have no desire, do not wait for someone to come and tell you, but you should search for Him. We should search Jesus. 

We need (to do the) hard work. It is not the duty of the priest to do hard work and come to you and search for you. They all have to do that but at the same time we may also have to search. 

We should have some hard work. We should take some initiative because God took the first initiative by coming down from heaven to this earth and preached to you the gospel. Now it’s our time to get up and go closer to God. Praise the Lord. 

Therefore this is very important (to be) listening to the word of God. Every time when you get an opportunity to listen to the word of God, do not skip. Some people they are interested in praying, praying. praying, and praying. Prayer is very good but it is the word of God that cleanses you. 

When you pray you are hiding your secrets but when you listen to the word of God all the secrets will come out. For e.g., if you have unforgiveness you may be able to pray continuously – hallelujah, praise the Lord, reciting holy rosary. But the moment you hear a word of God ‘forgive you will be forgiven’, you will be disturbed. 

One word of God will disturb you. But if you pray one hour it will not disturb you; because you are hiding your secret. The prayer is a mask for so many people. They do not want to listen to the word of God, because listening to the word of God brings out all the uncleanness inside of our heart. 

The more we listen, the more we are cleansed. That is why we need to listen to the word of God. We need to read the word of God. Every day please make sure that you have some time to open the Bible and read the word of God. 

In Wisdom 16:12 we read like this (the word of God says very clearly), ‘for neither herb, nor poultice cured them; but it was your word O Lord that heals all people’. It was your word that heals all people. Not medicine.

Yes medicine we (do) use, but at the same time, more than this, it is the word of God that you listen and the medicine that you take. It is because of the power of the word of God that even the medicine becomes powerful in your body. If you do not listen to the word of God and take only the medicines, do not ever expect healing from the Lord.

We need to listen to the word of God, repeat the word of God and take all the medicines that are prescribed by the doctors. You will see the medicine becomes effective in your body and will bring healing for you. For neither herb nor poultice cured them but it was your word oh Lord that heals all people. 

That is why Jesus said “by my word you are cleansed”; by listening to my word you are cleansed. So many people get healed by listening to the word of God.

They get cleansed. 

Let’s read (John 15) verse 4 – “abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me”. Only if you are connected to God, connected to Jesus, only if you are connected to the trunk of the vine, you will be able to bear fruit.

Verse 5 (this is a very important word of God) “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” It is not enough that you are abiding in Jesus but Jesus also should abide in you. 

Now many people are very close to God, but they never allow God to come inside of them. In one of the parishes, there is a catechist who is a very hard working man. 

Every time there is a retreat you will see him cleaning the whole place and moving around – carrying the water for everyone, preparing the place for food and everything. (He is also) chasing everyone from outside to inside the church.

But he never gets inside. He never attends. He is so hard working, busy moving around. But he had no time for God. He is so close to God but he never permitted God to enter inside of him. 

So it’s not enough that you are so close to the church, close to the activities of church. Some parishioners are very active in the committee meetings in the parishes. There they are very passionate about every activities of the church and parish but no connection with God. 

God is not inside. They are connected to the church and God, but God is not connected to them. That won’t work because that is why Bible says very clearly ‘those who abide in me and I in them, bear much fruit’. 

Just because you are going for holy mass every day does not mean you will bear fruit. It’s not enough that you go to God, to the church, but allow Jesus to come inside of you too.

In order that Jesus comes inside, you may have to purify. There is bad habit, wrong relationship, addictions, unholiness, uncleanness. Everything should be removed. Unless we do that He cannot come inside. 

We read Deuteronomy 23:14. The word of God says “because the Lord your God travels along with your camp to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.” 

If your camp is not holy, God will leave you. If your camp is holy, God will remain with you. Many people are connected to God but they never permit God to come inside of them, because they are not holy. 

There are lots of indecent and unholy things inside of them. There is a lot of indecent business in them. Therefore God turns away from them though they are going after God. 

They are going after God. They are very active in all the spiritual matters. They go for daily holy mass, confession, everything. But they are not ready to purify themselves. They continue the unforgiveness against their siblings. They continue all the wrong relationships. They continue all the bad habits but at the same time are very spiritual. This won’t work.

We read once again John 15 5. We read like this, the word of God says “I am the vine you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit” and the last word “because apart from me you can do nothing”.

Reflecting about this word of God ‘apart from me you can do nothing’ you know my brothers and sisters this is very, very important. ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’. 

I used to think, you know, even if Jesus is not there I can do something. Even if I am not connected to God, sometimes we think, even if I am not a believer I can do something.  I can be a preacher. I can use my intellect, my capacity and everything and do something. 

If Jesus is there with me I can do better. So this is how I used to think. But this word of God made me to rethink. Because Jesus says without me even if you are very intelligent, you have lots of wisdom, capacity, good in preaching, good in singing, and you have every talent, but if I am not there in your life you can do nothing. 

How is it possible because we sometimes think we can do something with or even without God. Because there are so many atheists who do not believe in God, do not accept Jesus the Lord, and they still do something. 

They do lot of charity, maybe a lot of good work. Then how come Jesus says this ‘apart from me you can do nothing’. Then I remembered one game which we used to play when we were small. Some fun game. 

This fun game goes like this – one side there are a lot of buckets full of water.

Then the players are supposed to stand in front of each bucket and each one is belonging to one team. 

At the other end there is a small long bottle with a small neck for the bottle. Each player had their hands tied behind and each player is given one small cup and with the mouth they have to bite and keep this cup. 

With this cup held in the mouth they have to come and collect water and then run to the bottle and fill the water into the bottle. This was the fun game that we had and then the game started.

I noticed one person was very active, very powerful, energetic. He was running to and fro, very fast. When the others are running once he runs three times or four times, collects the water, successfully runs back and tries to drop. The bottle is very small, the neck is very small, and it was very difficult to drop the water. But somehow he managed first to drop some drops of water.

There was one boy who was very slow. He was slower than all of them. He collected water in the cup, held in his mouth, the hands were tied behind. He walked slowly, came to the bottle and dropped the water with caution. 

He being cautious he dropped the water inside. Then you know what happened at the end, the one who worked hard running to and fro with his bottle, not even ten percentage of the water was there in the bottle. 

But the one who walked slowly, he worked only little bit, but all the water which he collected was in the bottle. Therefore it was effective. That collector bottle with the water was effective for him and he got the first prize. 

My brothers and sisters there are many people who are working hard. They are very successful people, very talented people. But if you are working hard without Jesus, everything is waste. Just like that man who was collecting water, running to and fro too many times, but no water fell inside the bottle. (It fell) only outside the bottle. 

This is exactly what happens if you do work without Jesus. If you do work without (being) united to Jesus, if you pray without Jesus, if you do anything, even if you do it in the name of Jesus, if you do it without Jesus, everything is waste. 

That is why even if you are a believer, if you do not believe in Jesus, even that belief is a waste. If you pray, if you do not pray through Jesus Christ, even your prayer is waste. Every hard work that you do, if you do not do it with Jesus, through Jesus, everything is waste. 

You may be working hard, you may be doing lots of work but everything is waste as per this word of God. That is why in the Holy Eucharist, every prayer that we do, we say ‘we make this prayer through Christ our Lord’. 

Why this is very special? Why this is like this? Why if we do not do it with Jesus, in union with Jesus, united to Christ, why it will be useless? The reason is Jesus is God – because Jesus is God. 

If He was a prophet we do not need him. If he is just a human being we do not need him. Just obey his message and look at God and believe in one God Jehovah or Yahweh and just believe in God and follow and call on him and pray. 

We do not need Jesus for it, because Jesus is just a prophet. If he is just a prophet we do not need Jesus then. But here Bible says very clearly ‘without Jesus even if you pray, even if you work hard, even if you do charity, even if you are compassionate, even if you do any good work, everything is waste’, because only through Jesus Christ all these things have meaning.

My brothers and sisters that is why Jesus said without me you can do nothing. My dear brothers and sisters this is very important for us. That is why there is salvation in no one else. 

There is no salvation in anyone else. If anybody wants to go to Jesus, I mean go to the heavenly Father, there is only one way, the way of Jesus. Without Jesus we cannot have a God – the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

My dear brothers and sisters always try your best to be united to Christ. Even if you are a very hard working man, prayerful man, or whatever, in anything that you do, do it in Jesus name. 

Do it in communion with Jesus, in union with Jesus and obedient to him and love him. Fall in love with him then all your hard work will be inside the bottle. All your struggles will be inside the bottle. 

Otherwise we are working hard, running here and there but everything is waste. Praise the Lord. 

Transcribed by Greta Furtado