ACC ~ John 15 v4

THE VINE AS A LIVING PARABLE

AMBROSE: It seems clear, therefore, that the example of the vine is designed, as this passage indicates, for the instruction of our lives. It is observed to bud in the mild warmth of early spring, and next to produce fruit from the joints of the shoots from which a grape is formed. This gradually increases in size, but it still retains its bitter taste. When, however, it is ripened and mellowed by the sun, it acquires its sweetness. Meanwhile, the vine is decked in green leaves by which it is protected in no slight manner from frosts and other injuries and is defended from the sun’s heat. Is there any spectacle that is more pleasing or any fruit that is sweeter? [1] What a joy to behold the rows of hanging grapes like so many jewels of a beautiful countryside, to pluck those grapes gleaming in colors of gold and purple! … Let them praise you who behold you, and let them admire the marshaled bands of the church like the serried rows of vine branches. Let everyone among the faithful gaze on the gems of the soul. Let them find delight in the maturity of prudence, in the splendor of faith, in the charm of Christian affirmation, in the beauty of justice, in the fecundity of pity, so that it may be said of you, “Your wife is a fruitful vine on the sides of your house,” [2] because you imitate by the exercise of your abundant and generous giving the bountiful return of a fruit-bearing vine. SIX DAYS OF CREATION 3.12.52. [3]

[1] See Cicero De senectute 15.53.

[2] Ps 128:3 (127:3 LXX, Vg).

[3] FC 42:106-7*; CSEL 32 1:94-95.

THE SPIRIT NOURISHES THE FRUIT

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Unless the branch is provided with the life-producing sap from its mother the vine, how will it bear grapes or what fruit will it bring forth—and from what source? … For no fruit of virtue will spring up anew in those of us who have fallen away from intimate union with Christ. To those, however, who are joined to the one who is able to strengthen them and who nourishes them in righteousness, the capacity to bear fruit will readily be added by the provision and grace of the Spirit, which is like a life-producing water. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.2. [1]

[1] LF 48:386**.

CHRIST NOURISHES WITH THE SPIRIT

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Just as the root of the vine administers and distributes to the branches the benefit of its own natural and inherent qualities, so too the only-begotten Word of God imparts to the saints, as it were, a likeness to his own nature and the nature of God the Father by giving them the Spirit, insomuch as they have been united with him through faith and perfect holiness. Christ nourishes them in piety and works in them the knowledge of all virtue and good works. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.2. [1]

[1] LF 48:364*.

THE BRANCHES BENEFIT MORE THAN THE VINE

AUGUSTINE: Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you.” They are not in him in the same kind of way that he is in them. And yet both ways tend to their advantage, not to his. For the relation of the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the vine but derive their own means of life from it, while that of the vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment and receives nothing from them. And so their having Christ abiding in them and abiding themselves in Christ are in both respects advantageous not to Christ but to the disciples. For when the branch is cut off, another may spring up from the living root. But that which is cut off cannot live apart from the root. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:345*; CCL 36:530.