Abide in Christ

[Jesus Christ said], "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. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5, NRSVCE).

Our own experience shows that when the branches separate from a grapevine, they wither and die and no longer produce fruit because they are no longer connected to the source of the nourishment that sustains them. Those branches that no longer produce fruit are pruned from the grapevine.

God is the source and sustainer of all life in which "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Separated from our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustaining God, we can bear no spiritual fruit.

To "abide" in Christ means you maintain a deep, close, and personal relationship and connection with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, just as when the branch abides in and stays connected to the grapevine. It involves trusting and relying on God's love and grace for your spiritual nourishment and growth. It means seeking God's presence throughout your day, consistently speaking to God, with humility and gratitude, expressing your doubts, fears, and hopes, seeking guidance, asking God to strengthen your faith, and especially by actively listening to what God says to you in the silence of your heart and mind. Abiding in Christ means also listening to and meditating on Scripture to help provide you with wisdom, understanding, and direction to meet and respond to your everyday challenges. It means surrendering to, discerning and obeying God's will through the promptings of the Holy Spirit and responding with faith, prayer, obedience, and right action. It means you seek to stop controlling everything, acknowledging that God's ways and plans are greater than your own, even in times of uncertainty. Abiding in Christ is not done in isolation, but means being part of a community of persons who also strive to abide in Christ, worshiping together, and being nourished by Christ who is present in the Word and the Eucharist.

Abiding in Christ is following the Way of Christ—the Way that leads to truth and abundant life for yourself and others (John 14:6; 10:10b). Through abiding in Christ you cooperate by allowing God's grace, will, power, and reign to flow and act in, with, and through you to bear the fruits of God's love, truth, joy, peace, justice, healing, compassion, patience, forgiveness, kindness, mercy and salvation for God's people and for the renewal of God's creation, all for the greater glory and honor of God.