A saying goes like this: “you cannot see God, yet you cannot live without him”. It somehow functions similarly to the oxygen. Oxygen is as important as God in our life. Today’s gospel reminds us that we are nothing without God. Jesus said that clearly: “without me you are nothing and you can do nothing, just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” We too will live if we are connected to Jesus. In the vineyard we can see the branches of the grape but we cannot see the tree, even though we are certain that the branches would not survive without the support of the tree because if not the branches won’t live. In the same way, even if we cannot see God, we are sure that he exists in our life. If God would let go of us, not even a minute we would survive. However, the adversary won’t let us accept this because evil frequently exists to trick us into thinking we no longer need God.

Fr. Palau, when talking about the love of God, was telling to the sisters to believe that God loved them so much. “He loves whatever is loveable in you which are, the persons or personality, and abhors vice and defects. He created you because he loves you; he redeemed you because he loves you; and because he loves you, he calls you by name, searches for you and dies for you mystically every day on the altar. This love which is rooted in Him and not in you must be the ground of your hope. Woe to you if this love were to depend on your merits”. The reason alleged by the evil angel to make you believe that Jesus is not your lover is your sinfulness and whatever you have in common with the sinful Adam. But father Palau strongly told them that, sin is not far from cooling off the love of this lover, on the contrary he died in order to sacrifice it. This proves the love of God for us.

Today the Gospel reminds us to be fully alive, to be fruitful we need God in our lives. What does it mean to be fully alive? Is it because we are still moving, smiling or laughing with lots of friends but still feeling empty. Is it because we can afford to acquire what we want because we are wealthy? That is not always the case because a comfortable life is not the path to being fully alive is rather a ticket to boredom and despair. Why? Because Jesus declared that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that he has come to give them abundant life. Only if we choose to live with Jesus will we be able to experience the fullness of life.

Brothers and sisters, in times that we are sad, young people who easily lose hope, people who don’t see the meaning of life, many who commit suicide; then it is a call for us all that we should bring back God to be the center of our lives. Individually, or in the family or in the community. Let us remember that even though we have everything we wanted in life but there’s is no God we will not gain true life. Jesus reminds us that “what does its prophet the man if he gains the whole word and loses his life. “When we have nothing left but God, we will discover that God is enough”, mother Teresa once said.