I have a black thumb! I kill plants. I’m not that good with artificial plants! However, I love having flowers and plants in the church and on the church grounds. So I watch some of the gardening shows that are on tv to see what I’m doing wrong. (never helps!) There is a lot of advice and techniques for pruning.
Today’s gospel has Jesus also discussing the spiritual pruning process. Do you see any parallels? First, the gardener has to time it right—too soon cuts off new growth; but too late, and the plant grows wild. Also, a plant must grow to a certain maturity, to survive the trauma of pruning.
If a rose is grown in bad soil or has not been watered enough, the gardener has to be very gentle and prune carefully, as the plant needs more care.
Finally, the gardener steps back and views the whole plant, to see what dead or diseased stalks need removing—branches growing up the wrong way, or any that are diseased and whatever is dead already. See the comparisons to us?
We need the pain of pruning, because “Every branch that bears fruit, (God) prunes to make it bear more fruit.” In other words, if we are really trying to love God and our neighbor, then we will be pruned, or purified further. God shows us how we can love even more, and that always requires some kind of change on our part.
Maybe we get a new awareness of some selfishness in us; are we control-freaks? Do we love for the right motives? God knows our deep places where change is needed. But as we get closer in friendship to Jesus, we see how un-Christlike we often are. It’s uncomfortable, but things don’t end there. This new knowledge opens the door for us to make significant change. It brings us closer than ever to living as Christ would have us live.