“If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon our hearts. The spirit should not grow old.”1 That’s good advice and very much in harmony with Jesus’ instruction in today’s Gospel Lesson. “I am the vine,” Jesus says, “and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).
Unlike physical growth, spiritual growth is not an aging process. Spiritual growth keeps us young at heart. And the young at heart, Jesus is telling us, are those who remain attached to Him for their spiritual nourishment — just as a vital, fruit-bearing branch is nourished by being attached to the main vine. Apart from the vine, the branch can do nothing: it withers and dies. Consequently, we need to cast aside anything in life that separates us from the one true Vine: the Source of our spiritual nourishment. In…
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