Pruning seems like a violent process. After a season of growth the vinedresser picks up his sharpened shears and carefully goes about his work. Branches that take up space but bear few grapes, he cuts off at the stem. Then, surprisingly, he even starts chopping away at the fruit-bearing branches, until in the end, there is little visible except the vine and shortened branches.
Jesus told us (John 15) that he is the vine and his Father is the vinedresser. Branches that bear fruit are trimmed back until little is left except there attachment to the vine. Those that bear little or no fruit are removed completely and tossed into the fire. In the end little is left except for Jesus and those who are closely attached to him.
Could this describe what the Father is doing with the Church today? What some see as a collapse of the Church may be better interpreted as pruning time. It is easy to overgrown with leaves and a tangle of branches that we can no longer even see the vine.
Jesus spoke to his disciples about what a “pruned Church” might look like. A rich young man sought to follow Jesus but wanted to bring his riches with him. After he walked away Jesus talked to his disciples about the danger of riches (Matthew 19:23-30).
“Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
It was almost impossible to push a fattened camel, ladened with goods, through a tiny gate. Even if the camel has good intentions and wants to get through to the other side, it just doesn’t fit.
Riches carry baggage. A rich person is able to surround himself with pleasures—with family and many friends. A rich person is highly honored by those in the community and wields power in proportion to his financial worth; he can hire and fire people at will. Imagine what a rich person must give up if his riches are taken away—pleasure, prestige, and power.
Jesus’ words upset Peter. It seemed that Jesus was imposing such a strict criterion for salvation that few, if any, could “fit” through the gate. Jesus replied,
“For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
God can find a way of gracing even the rich to detach themselves from what they possess in order to fit through the small gate that leads into the Kingdom. Though most of the canonized saints that we read about were poor, some were wealthy—and were able to use their riches and influence to promote God’s Kingdom. It is possible, though difficult, to possess riches without being possessed by them.
Peter noted to Jesus that they were about as poor as one could get. They gave up businesses, family, and positions in their communities to follow Jesus. They agreed to some serious “pruning.” What about them? Jesus said,
“Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones…And everyone who has given up houses, or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred time more and will inherit eternal life.”
A pruned vine looks poor and pitiful for a while. But in the next season it will be richer than ever with fruit. Jesus was training people to make them fit for the age to come—a new season. He required them to give up riches so that in time they would be truly rich, having a hundred times more than what they gave up.
The safest thing for a branch to do during pruning time is to get closer than ever to the vine. That part of us that is deeply connected to Jesus will survive and thrive. It is our relationship with Jesus that matters; all else is temporary. A tried and true way of staying close to Jesus is to do what St. Paul told the Roman Church:
“Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation” (Romans 12:16).
