“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:4-5)

Unless we abide in Christ, we cannot bear fruit. Jesus says: “Without Me you can do nothing.” We can only do one thing – we can sin. This is programmed in us. But we are unable to do good. Perhaps we can do good outwardly, but this is full of pride and it bears the fruit of death.

If we are to bear fruit which is of worth for eternity, we must be united to Christ and His cross. Jesus says: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” (Mt 6:20) How? In suffering, let us start to give thanks instead of complaining: “Lord, I do not understand but I thank You.” Someone picks your pocket or cheats you, you miss the train or get hurt or tear your dress… Sometimes there is trouble at every step. You get out of the house and you don’t know what danger can await you, or you catch an infection and you are powerless. You can just praise God with all your strength by faith because your reason rebels against it. For example: You are in bed with flu and you are in low spirits, attacked by various silly thoughts. It is a cross. You must try to make the most of it. Maybe you suffer for a hidden sin or for pride or an idle word by which you hurt someone. You can suffer a kind of purgatory on earth or sacrifice it for the salvation of souls or for an awakening, in the belief that the Lord will then give you the light or a blessing. There’s one thing you need to do: give thanks! “I do not understand, Lord, but I give thanks to You.” Otherwise one tends to rebel against God and blame Him: “What’s that? I serve You, so what’s the meaning of this?” You must stop! Stop! Look at yourself and the Lord will give you the light. If you act on logic or emotions, you immediately think in this way. This is our reaction when we feel helpless. Our reaction to evil done to us is hatred, revenge, shouting. In such a situation you need to put into practice the following: “I am crucified with Christ.” But we do not want to be crucified with Christ. We remain alone and we react accordingly and sin. Let’s say: “Lord, this is my cross now – this dullness, powerlessness… I want to do something but I can’t. I would like to work and I should, but I can’t because I have no time for it, no means, no people to help me…” When you accept this powerlessness, the Lord will give you a blessing and it will soon be done. We have to respect these laws.

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