There’s a lot of work to do in today’s world. Almost daily, the TV and Radio brings terrible news of atrocities and disasters around the planet. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the bad news and to feel powerless to do anything. We do not consider that we can individually instigate change for lots of reasons. We do not feel clever enough, or brave enough or rich enough. In short it’s hard to know where to begin and even whether change is possible. The inspirational message in today’s gospel is that we can make changes as long as we work together.

We are already familiar with the ethos of trade unions. Trade unions operate on one powerful principal. Individually we can be easily overlooked but together we have the power to sway governments. If a trade union wanted to promote solidarity and unity, the vine would make an ideal logo. The vine itself is the heart of the union, the part that determines the ethos. The branches do the work of the vine and the fruit they bear is the outcome …. the final result.

Today we are told that with Christ as our vine we can do great things. All too often we become wrapped up in developing our own spirituality, trying to work out what God means to us as an individual ….. striving to find our niche. It’s easy to forget that we are part of a huge family of people the biggest union on the planet. With Christ’s teaching and pruning, we as a body, have the ability to transform the world by putting faith into action. Our individual responsibility is to look for ways in which we can become part of the overall plan. We don’t have to branch out alone; we branch out as a team.