By Jonathan Camiolo

 

Strong winds gusted a few days ago.  The next day, my brother and I went to visit my parent’s home that has been sold and is now empty.  I lived there for 17 years, called it home, and spent so many wonderful and meaningful days there.  It is going to be demolished in order for a new development of homes to be constructed.  It is sad to think of a place that has been so much a part of my life disappearing in just a few days.  

 

When I drove down the driveway to say goodbye, I found a surprising sight.  There was a large tree lying on the driveway.  It had just missed the back of the house.  It had fallen over in the strong winds and lay detached from its roots.  The tree had no hope of recovery or survival.  The leaves were still green and the branches still seemed alive, but no more life was flowing to the limbs and leaves of the tree.  In a few weeks, everything would be dead.  

 

I then walked into the house, and looked around.  It was empty.  All the pictures were gone, spots were furniture used to be were vacant, and the house was silent.  There was no life in the house anymore.  As I stood there and thought of all the days and family events spent there, it just did not feel right.  It was not the same.  It was now just a house, not my home.  It was walls, windows, doors and a foundation, but it was nothing more.  I realized in the moment, that I was not attached to the house, but rather the people and experiences that made the house my home.  It was a lot easier to say goodbye to the house than I thought since there was no life left in it.  

 

In the scriptures this weekend, we hear that God is the vine and we are the branches.  We hear in both the second reading and the gospel that we are to “remain in Him”.  We hear that if we stay attached to Christ, we will experience life and its many blessings. We will be able to do wonderful things with our lives and “bear much fruit”.  We will have life running in and through us.  We need to stay attached to the source of our life, the faith, hope and love that come from Christ.  If we don’t, we will find ourselves like the fallen tree in the driveway, slowly dying and losing life.  

 

The tree that fell on the driveway has now been cut up into pieces and will serve as fuel for the fires on summer nights in my yard, but will no longer be the tree that was full of life, was beautiful and provided shade.  I don’t want to be dead spiritually, dried out and only useful as fuel for fire.  I want to be a fruitful person, the person God is calling to do great things.  He wants me to not only survive, but thrive.  In order to do that I need to stay attached through prayer and the sacraments, and like the second reading says, by keeping His commandments.  He wants all of us to remain attached to Him.  

 

Don’t let the strong winds of life knock you down and separate you from the roots that give life to your faith.  Let’s do what it takes to remain in Christ, and He will surely remain in all of us.  HAPPY EASTER STILL!!! Change your habits, change your life.  Help someone change their habits, you will help them change their life!