Our need for regular cutting and pruning

“I am the vine, you are the branches.” Christ addressed these words to his disciples who now include us. They spell out how our relationship with Christ is. We are nothing without him. We need to be with him if we want to be what he wants us to be and what we ought to be. May it be that we always feel the need to be united with Christ.

Earlier, he said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” (cfr. Jn 15,1-8)

It’s worthwhile to take note of the cutting of fruitless branches and pruning of fruit-bearing branches. While it is God who cuts and prunes, we also have a part to play. We need to do some cutting and pruning in ourselves to do away with useless things and trigger more fruitfulness in things already bearing fruit.

We need to realize cutting and pruning should be a regular thing, since it’s undeniable there are things in us that would simply cease to bear fruit and need to be cut away, and things that can still be more fruitful if we would just prune them to remove outdated and ineffective styles and practices and give way to new ones.

We have to make sure we don’t cut what we are supposed to prune only, and vice-versa. It’s important to distinguish between what’s essential and non-essential in our spiritual life, between what is of absolute and permanent value, and what simply has relative and passing value.

This can mean there are certain old things we have kept and practiced for years that we now may have to discard since they have become irrelevant and ineffective, and other old things we still need to keep since they are always necessary.

To be discerning in this matter requires a lot of prudence, which requires study, consultation, experimentation, etc. We need to be patient going through this process, but that would be all worthwhile. Let’s hope that we don’t get daunted by the effort it requires.

Especially these days, when there are so many and rapid developments, we really need to do cutting and pruning if only to adapt to the changing environments. Otherwise we would be left behind, failing to evolve with the world in general. We have to understand evolution here as a homogeneous one, not a heterogeneous one where we cease to be human and Christian.

While it is true that according to the Book of Ecclesiastes, nothing is new under the sun since God is in control of everything (cfr. 1,9), things in life go through endless variations, always giving us the sensation we are always confronted with new things.

We cannot deny that in today’s digital world, there are many moral and ethical issues that need to be resolved yet, we just cannot blindly apply the laws, standards, and criteria of yesteryears. At the very least, they need to be fine-tuned, or to be more nuanced to capture what the Holy Spirit is telling us about what to do with these issues brought about by the new developments.

The cutting and the pruning should be under the guidance of God and carried out as a common effort of everyone, according to each one’s expertise.