Lessons 7 - 9 from the Divine Office of St. George, Martyr: John 15: 1-7; Treatise 80 on John by St. Augustine the Bishop.
Lessons 7 - 9 from the Divine Office of St. George, Martyr: John 15: 1-7; Treatise 80 on John by St. Augustine the Bishop.
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At that time, Jesus spake unto His disciples: I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
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Dearly beloved brethren, this passage of the Gospel, wherein the Lord saith that He is the Vine, and that His disciples are the branches, is to be taken in that sense wherein it is also said, that He is the Head of the Church, and that we are the members of Him who is the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The Vine and His branches are of one and the same nature. Therefore, seeing that He was God, of which nature we are not, He was made man, to the end that He might have in Himself this vine, that is, the manhood, whereof we men can be made branches.
Why saith He: I am the true Vine? As touching this word True, hath He not here regard to that other parable of a vine, the like figure whereto He doth here apply to Himself? Here is he called a Vine, not plainly, but in parable, as also He is called elsewhere a Sheep, a Lamb, a Lion, a Rock, a Corner-Stone, and other things of the like kind. But these things are in themselves that which they seem to be, albeit He is called by their names, not plainly, but in a parable, and herein are they different from that vine, whereof in this place He taketh on Him the name. For when He saith: I am the true Vine, doth He not make distinction between Himself, and that which indeed seemed to be a vine, but to which it is said: How art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me? For by what title shall that plant be called other than a false vine, whereto they looked that she should bring forth grapes, and she brought forth thorns?
He saith: I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Is the vine one with the husbandman? These words then are to be taken in that sense wherein He also saith: My Father is greater than I. In this sense is He the Vine, and the Father is the Husbandman. But again, in regard to those words: I and the Father are One, and again: And My Father is the Husbandman, we understand that they are not the vine and the husbandman, after the manner of a vine, and the husbandman that from without doth care for and keep it, but after the manner of a vine and Him that from within doth make it to bring forth fruit. For: Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increase. But Christ is God, for: The Word was God. Therefore He and the Father are one: and, albeit the Word was made Flesh, which, before, He was not, He ceased not to be still that which He was.