‘Ask whatever you want. It will be done.’ Really?

Jesus said to his disciples: “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 every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” – The Gospel of Saint John, 15:1-2, 7

THE Good Shepherd. The vine and the branches. And now, “Love one another, and I love you.”

In the deathly surge of the pandemic, especially in the coronavirus disease 2019, or Covid-19, maelstrom in India, many of the faithful can be forgiven if we feel some disconnect from the Gospel readings in the current and past two Sundays of Easter.

We ponder worshipfully our Lord’s farewell words to His Apostles as recounted in Chapters 14 and 15 the Gospel of Saint John, quoted above from last Sunday, as well as the discourse on Jesus as the Good Shepherd two Sundays ago, and his new commandment in today’s reading to love one another as he loved us.

All very spiritual and heavenly, but for many a Covid-fearing soul, not greatly comforting or reassuring as whole communities, if not countries, fill mass graves or fuel funeral pyres by the hundreds or thousands.

Last week, 1.5 million people joined the Covid-19 contagion in India, bringing its total cases to nearly 22 million — nearly twice the whole population of Metro Manila — and active cases to 3.6 million, more than 50 times the active cases in all the Philippines.

Where is the Good Shepherd, the vine and most especially the love of God in all that dying?

For sure, as daily viral messages extol with gratitude and platitudes, the sacrifice, heroism, courage and dedication of frontliners risking and saving lives stand as mountains holding back the bloody tsunamis of breath-breaking pandemic.

But do they find comfort and strength even in Jesus’s promise in today’ that for those who “bear fruit” of good works, “ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you”?

Well, countless healers, families and friends were certainly not short of loving and holy works but are now grieving. Why did their pleas for the lives and healing of their ailing charges not granted?

‘Your joy be complete’

Today’s reading from the Gospel of St. John (15:9-17) may have an answer. In the verses coming right after last week’s discourse on Jesus the vine and his disciples the branches, he reassures us:

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Our Lord promises that what his disciples ask would be granted. And what do they want the most? For sure, it’s not the total banishment of suffering and death in this life, for as followers of Christ, they do not seek to escape pain, but take up their crosses and follow him, each to his or her own Calvary.

Rather, their greatest wish is to be with our Lord and his Father in heaven, not just for themselves, but for their loved ones. If that ultimate outcome is assured, their joy will be complete, as Christ promised.

And in most online Masses and novenas for the dearly departed,

including many Covid-19 victims, there is not just fond remembrance and painful loss over the deceased, but most so the relief, if not joy, that they are at last past their death throes and in the bliss and peace of heaven.

What joy could be more complete and lasting than knowing one’s beloved will never suffer pain and death ever again?

And this love for one another is the very sap of the vine that produces good fruit in us his branches, as God the Father told St. Catherine of Siena, commemorated two Thursdays ago, in her mystical encounter on Jesus’s discourse on the vine:

“I am the gardener, then, who planted the vine of my only-begotten Son in the earth of your humanity, so that you, the branches, could be joined to the vine and bear fruit … because you will share the vital sap of the vine. And being in the Word, my Son, you will be in me, for I am one with him and he with me.”

May the joy of God, flowing through the vine who is Christ, flow in us, and through us, to all our loved ones, that our joy may be full in this life and for all eternity. Amen.