Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 14:21-27 | Revelation 21:1-5a | John 13:31-33a, 34-35
How do we hasten the Eschaton, the End of all things?
Throughout Easter we have been reflecting on a specific branch of theology called eschatology, which has to do with death, purgatory, hell, heaven, and where the universe is going. A consistent theme is that God in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit is The End or Eschaton in ancient Greek. God is going to fulfill the whole cosmos at the end of time when Jesus comes again. At the second coming, God will transform us totally, body and soul. The defining action belongs to God. Still, we can help. We can cooperate with God in hastening the Eschaton. This we do by realizing our oneness with God, that is, how our own I am is deeply connected to the divine I AM. Whenever the phrase “I am” shows up in the Gospels it has to do with our spiritual awakening, which is our personal cooperation with God in bringing about The End.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the true vine.” He uses this evocative image, the vine, to convey how we are rooted in God through him. None of us is one with God because of something we have done or some special quality we possess. We are one with God here and now because of Jesus Christ, the true vine. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Each of us is distinct from God yet, deep down in the core of our being we are indistinct. At one point the vine and the branch are one and the same yet vine is vine and branch is branch. Just so, Jesus is both human and divine. Our task is to wake up to the same unity in ourselves.
Waking up to our unity with God in Christ is the “fruit of the vine.” We, the branches connected to God through Jesus the true vine, bear fruit by realizing unity with God. When we bear fruit we hasten the Eschaton, we cooperate with God in bringing about the reign of God. Yet, Jesus does not shy away from the consequences of not waking up. Speaking of God, Jesus says, “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” We are without real life, freedom, and happiness when we do not bear the fruit of awakening. And, when we do wake up, we begin to see how often we have to let go or prune to stay in touch with Reality, the I AM. God prunes us by giving us opportunities to let go of ego and by giving us the teaching of Jesus. “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.” The word is both Jesus’ transmission of the nondual life of the I AM deep within us.
Jesus then gives us the only spiritual practice we ever need to wake up to the I AM: abiding. He says, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” Remaining in Jesus is to remain Aware, Awake, Alert as the I AM found within my own I am. He is calling us to unceasing contemplation, pure presence in the now, and a silent mind pregnant with divine spirit. If we abide in our God-given I AM nature, we wake up. Or, as Jesus puts it, “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” Even more, a simple remaining in Christ, and therefore in God, through contemplative silence bears fruit in the world. Those who are awake, contemplatives, have a hidden and amazing impact on the world.
Still, Jesus reminds us of a core fact, something that always gives the ego trouble. He declares, “without me you can do nothing.” We need God! We cannot do it alone. Anyone who has tried to live spiritually has felt this truth in the guts. We try; we fail; we try again; we fail again. God allows this until we realize how much we desperately need God. One of our society’s prime sins is self-sufficiency. We think we can do everything on our own without any help from anyone! That we need God is apparent, above all, in eschatology. The End does not come about by our efforts. It comes in God’s own time and by God’s own ways. Still, connected to the I AM through Jesus we can hasten it. We can wake up.
Through this waking up to the I AM as our own I am, we glorify God. “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” We accept the I AM as our own I am when we accept what is, when we accept the God within us through silence and the letting go of ego. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We realize our oneness with the divine I AM through Jesus and we bear the fruit of awakening. This bearing fruit helps usher in the end times. There is another holy person, one who has become transparent to God’s mercy washing over the cosmos. The Eschaton will be all about this gratuitous mercy.