May 9, 2009

Vine Grower and Vine

"I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower," says the Lord. By making us into the limbs and branches of his own body, Jesus has given us the opportunity to fulfill our vocation as creatures made in the image and likeness of the Blessed Trinity. My homily for this weekend is posted here.

5 comments:

for narnia said...

beautiful homily, Fr. C! my own reflection on the readings is a little similar to how you begin your homily where you shared how each of you as novices were given a little piece of earth to grow a garden and care for it. i had a similar feeling in how people tend to get caught up in "doing" things to make the materialistic part of their lives look good such as their homes, etc... but, i think that we can sometimes get too caught up on how things look on the outside and we could miss the really important part, which you describe in your homily, which is in our relationships with each other. that is what matters most and what is makes us happiest. i know that for me, i'm happiest when i'm in ministry at church. bringing peace and healing to others is what matters. PEACE! ~tara t~
p.s. what does "filioque" mean?

Brother Charles said...

Thanks for the encouragement, as always, Tara.

Filioque is the Latin of our line in the Creed, "and the Son," referring to the difference between East and West on the issue of whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father or from the Father "and the Son."

for narnia said...

your welcome, Fr. C! ok, now that i know what "filioque" means, no, i don't think anything in your homily was in violation. see you soon! PEACE! ~tara t~

ben in denver said...

I think that one of the Characteristics of the Holy Ghost is that His procession is manifold.

Clearly, while the creed articulates objective truths about God, it also articulates objective truths about man. The question of the filoque may be a truth about man as much as it is a truth about God. In the EF this Sunday the Gospel we heard was about how Jesus was going to SEND the Paraclete after his Ascension (Jn 16). Clearly from this scripture we see that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son to men.

How else are we to be grafted onto the Vine if not through the work of the Holy Ghost?

However, the question you are concerned with is the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father to the Son. I'm not sure the filoque speaks to that question.

Brother Charles said...

Excellent Ben!

I actually went to an EF Mass yesterday afternoon(+May Crowning and Brown Scapular enrollment) and was pondering the same thing!