Where I live, it is spring and the natural world is blooming. Fruit trees bear fragrant flowers. Green buds pop out of the long-bare branches of trees and shrubs and vines. Everything is turning green and pink. And yes, people head for their gardens, armed with trowels and shears, to prune away the dead growth and make room for the new.

Today’s Gospel gives me much to think about as I prepare to prune the bushes and plants in my own garden. But it’s not just the garden outside. Jesus tells the disciples: “I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”  I need to cut away the branches that are part of me that represent me cutting corners of integrity, shaving compassion, slicing love – the things where I turn away from God because I choose the path of consumption, greed and selfishness. If I listen, really listen to and heed the word of God in my heart, that word will bear fruit in my actions and my life. Let me listen to the word of God and let it flower within me and grow.

Today’s Gospel also reminds of the Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius. This prayer gets to the heart of Jesus’ words in the Gospel. It is my prayer for today.

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.