From Vineyard to Bottle

PRUNING SEASON

For a person who tends a vineyard, the pruning of the vine is essential in order to foster a quality crop.  Unattended vine will produce fruit, but of low quality and eventually may break and cause the vine to be uprooted.  It is thus with parable of the vine grower in today's Gospel reading, who prunes away the deadened branches so that the vine may produce quality fruit.

I am familiar with pruning away old branches having grown up in an agricultural area that was the home of olives, almonds, plums, peaches, and walnuts. Each year the farmers would head out to the orchards with their workers usually after the crops had been picked and prune the trees.  The old growth would be collected and burned in heaps sending up plumes of smoke throughout the area of the orchards. As a child I would also help with the pruning our own olive trees and peach tree. Up an down the ladder to prune the dead growth which would be bundled up and discarded. When needed an application of a black tar-like substance would be applied to prevent the exposed cut from disease. The shears were always washed as well to preserve the integrity of the tool.

THOSE PRUNING SHEARS

For those familiar with gardening, one of the essential tools is the pruning shears. The gardener armed with the shears heads into the garden trimming flowers, rose bushes, and vegetable plants so that the plants may produce beautiful flowers and sumptuous fruit. The old vines and branches are discarded as well.  Once pruned the plants seem to proliferate. As a tomato grower, I am always pruning away the bottom part of the plant as in will invariably sprout little shoots that become prolific if not cut away, thus producing dense foliage but little fruit.

This brings me back to Gospel. God as the vine grower who prunes away our deadened growth. When we are burdened with heavy fruit which comes in the form of bad habits, vices, and the like we gradually become uprooted from our foundation which is God, the giver of life. The fruit which we produce is not tasty, but bitter. One can readily identify with this if you have ever bought grapes at the market, only to go home take a bite and immediately shake with disgust with the sour taste. It is perhaps like this when we at our worst project the fruit of hatred, resentment, and a unloving spirit towards others. I have been through these times and in retrospect I am amazed that people that people tolerated me.  I was coming out of the ground roots and all that is until Eternal vine grower stepped in - pruning away those defects of character and habits that prevented me from producing good fruit.
Even what seems at times good fruit can be deceiving as one might be involved with work to the extent that it becomes all consuming, keeping us from truly carrying our mission. In time this fruit will turn bitter as well as the branches continue to sprout resembling the many tasks we take on, but not producing anything of quality.

BURNING THE DISCARDS

Discarding the cut growth into the fires parallels the need for daily examination and attending the sacrament of reconciliation as often as we can. Perhaps being reminded by our loved ones about the parts of our behavior that seem to bring out the worst in us is a prompting to do some personal pruning. It is quite easy for me to minimize a defect until it is brought front and center by someone close to me. But this alone doesn't make it easy to cut off the growth, this only comes through prayer. Other than that the behavior is much like the suckers on a tree or plant that continually sprout up from the trunk, taking away the ability to fully grow.

GOOD WINE

I am thoroughly convinced having gone through a considerable pruning that God intends that I produce good fruit and for that matter wine that is of good quality. I need that pruning periodically as something in my life seems to be taken away so that I can refocus on the need for God. I need to remain in Jesus in order to be productive not in a worldly sense, but spiritually.  Not much of a wine drinker I do enjoy a good wine occasionally and I understand the work it takes to get from the vine to the bottle.  We are as such pruned, picked and bottled so that we can pass on good spirits to others.