When I was 11 or 12 years old I remember on a Saturday morning, beautiful day, my mom and dad went off shopping in the morning and I decided I wanted to show to them that I had grown up. And so I went into the garage and I decided as a gift to my mom and dad I would trim the bushes for my family. Now the bushes were right in front of the big picture window in the front of our house and they stood about three feet tall. So I did, I trimmed the outside of the bushes, I did a pretty good job. And then I went in behind the bushes and I took a look and I found a bunch of dead branches.

So I went back to the garage, I grabbed a little saw and I began to cut away the dead branches. There was one particularly big branch that was dead so I thought, and I cut and I cut and I cut and the branch fell forward and I had cut the bush right in half. I could see all the way to the street. My heart dropped. I ran to the garage again, I got a piece of orange rope, it was orange, and I tied the branch back onto the bush and then I closed the drapes so that no one could see it thinking that they’d never open the drapes again. Well sure enough, it all fell apart as did the branch and it died. It was cut away from the bush. It withered and it’s died. I’m not going to tell you what my parents did. It was a great lesson for me.

Jesus says in the Gospel, “I am the vine. You are the branches. Apart of me you can do nothing.” It’s one of the great lines in the Gospels where Jesus refers to Himself as the I am of God. I am living water. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. In this Gospel He says, “I am the vine. You are the branches.” We need to be connected to the very source of life and love which is Jesus that we celebrate during this Easter season. He is Savior and redeemer of us all. To stay connected to the life source, how important that is.

And so as we gather during this wonderful Easter season, around the table of the Lord, we stay even more connected with the Lord through the celebration of this Eucharist. Where He gives us His body. He gives us His blood to nourish us on our pilgrim journey.