Able to Bear More
/May 24, 2022
Scripture
“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. (John 15:1-2 MSG)
Able to Bear More
The trees were saplings in the fall of 1978 and now 45 years later they provide a rich canopy of beauty. Early in their lives when our kids were little, we had to protect them from being pulled over or broken – now the branches can support large climbers, swings and other apparatus. But a forester has been pruning them to increase their health, longevity, and strength.
Last Wednesday morning, I heard Jesus’ metaphor of his Father pruning branches so they can “bear more” in a new way for me. Yes, the pruning makes for more grapes, but it first must create the capacity to bear more weight – strength to handle the load.
Our friend Rick Tobias died that same morning surrounded by the love of his family and the prayer embrace of untold numbers of friends. He had been going through a form of pruning and yet he had a remarkable capacity to bear the load – he knew suffering and he knew it was part of life.
Four of us were with him on the Monday afternoon that week and his courage and faith were an encouragement to us even as we grieved his evident diminishment in physical strength. The prayer for today describes a process we all experience. Even as we age, we are in the hands of the loving God. We bear a load but it is only so God can bear us closer to the heart of Eternal Love.
Prayer for the Grace to Age Well
When the signs of age begin to mark my body ….when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is born within me; when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old; and above all at that last moment when I feel I am losing hold of myself and am absolutely passive within the hands of the great unknown forces that have formed me; in all those dark moments, O God, grant that I may understand that it is you …. who are painfully paring the fiber of my being in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance and bear me away within yourself.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ)
