Through the sacrament of baptism we are incorporated into Christ.  Christ takes up his dwelling within us through the indwelling Spirit and we take up our dwelling in the Body of Christ that is the Church.  In this way we begin our sharing in the divine life begun in grace and perfected in the life of holiness.  Jesus describes this mysterious relationship of intimate love and life in the very succinct statement in the gospel of John, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”(Jn 15,4) This “remaining” in the relationship of faith entails our faithfulness and commitment to the life of Christ that we are called to and to which we witness with our entire lives.

    John in his letter to the Church exhorts us to, “let us love not in word and speech but in deed and truth.”(1Jn 3,18) To remain in Christ is to remain in faith and love.  As John tells us clearly, “his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them…”(1Jn 3,23f)  We must remain in love, but a love that is more than fancy words and speeches, more than emotional highs and intentions of change.  Our love must be one of action in deed and truth.  We must live a life of love and bear the fruit of love in our lives.  Our actions must bear witness to our faith and love.

    “We’ll see…”  There are many people who have an encounter with Jesus through the experience of a retreat or some other type of religious experience.  They sense within their hearts a call to conversion and to a new way of life in Christ.  There is an initial fervor and excitement about the possibilities of living a life of faith and love, a life of freedom in the Spirit of truth rooted in God’s grace.  However, it is hard to sustain this emotional high and many of those who start out on this new road of faith end up falling away and returning to their former way of life.  Initial conversion and a personal confession of faith must be followed up with a new way of life that allows the person to “remain” in Christ and to bear the good fruit of the life of Christ now coursing through them in a spiritual life that is rooted in Christ.  True conversion must produce the evidence of a new way of life in love.

    “When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.” (Acts 9,26)  The disciples had heard of the conversion of Saul but they took a “wait and see” attitude toward embracing him in the community.  They wanted to see the fruits of the Spirit of Christ at work in his life.  Barnabas was willing to take a risk in mentoring Saul in the life of faith.  Soon Saul became Paul the apostle and his life began to show the working of the Holy Spirit in his life.  Paul would later write to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Gal 2,20)  Paul had truly been grafted on the vine that was Jesus and now the life of Christ flowed through him.

    We can speak about our love for God but as John tells us to know that we “remain in him” we must keep his word and commandment, and his word is to believe in the name of Jesus the Christ and to love our neighbors as he has loved us.  Only if we keep these commandments will we truly be in Christ and a part of his vine.  Our lives in Christ are meant to bear fruit – the fruit of justice and peace.  “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”(Jn 15,5)  We cannot just speak about our life in Christ we must also bear witness to that life that is within us through our lives that are conformed to Christ.  Each of us must examine our concrete lives and see if we are truly growing in the grace of Christ and glorifying God through our lives.  If we conform our lives to the world rather than to Christ in the Church then we are fruitless branches that will be pruned and cut off from Christ the vine.  Each of us must not think that we are in Christ based solely upon our “say so” but we must act courageously in faith and be a witness to others.