Grapes for Pruning

Just recently, I was having a conversation with a couple of friends regarding the changes I felt myself going through. All the while, I assumed that the changes were internal, that I was becoming more serious, quieter as a person, my priorities in life were changing. I felt myself withdrawing from certain aspects of my life which I considered quite unfruitful and unproductive. I have since mellowed from the previous impulsive and active Kath, though up to this day, I can still be quite impulsive and emotional when called for. I kept emphasizing how much I’ve changed. How much I’ve grown, but failed to realize I was committing a grave error in admitting this. I kept using the word I and ME, looking at the changes from an internal point of view- that I almost missed the whole point of it all.

None of these are about me.

It is a humbling realization I admit, a bit sore on my ego centered pride, but very sensible in its simplicity. It is not me as a person that changed primarily. It was my direction that changed when I made that conscious choice to walk toward God and fall in love with him. Like the Jesuit priest said, my falling in love with God, decided everything- my priorities, my desires, my personality as well as my emotions and impulses. In short, metaphorically speaking, I became a grape, ready for pruning.

Biblical narrations are abundant and loose in their allusions to “vineyards”, “vines”, “grapes” and “wine”. In the Old Testament particularly, there are several references made to vineyards. In fact, Jesus’ first miracle at the Wedding in Cana was to transform 12 jugs of water into wine. As usual, my literarily analytical mind cannot help but put my two cents worth into the metaphors of the vineyards and wine, and their possible allusion to man per se.

We were initially created as “grape seeds”, sown into the fertile vineyards when we were thrust into the world. With the proper care and nurture, the seeds grow into plants and bear fruit. As with the real vineyards, some seeds not nurtured properly eventually end up dying without any chances of growing. People who continually reject God and refuse to respond to His love end up becoming like the seeds that never really grow. In time and with the proper care and nurture, the plants bear fruit in form of grapes. Most people, Christians too, believe that they become actualized as they bear fruit in form of grapes. Most stop at this level and eventually fall off the branches and onto the ground. The question that needs to be asked is this: Does man really become actualized as he becomes a “grape”? Is it enough for man to stop at a certain stage of his relationship with God?

The answer to both questions, is a sound and resolute NO. No, it is not enough to actualize oneself as a “grape”, because we forget that the end of the seed is not realized in the grape (fruit) it bears. We forget that the grape seeds continue to “actualize” their worth after they bear fruit because they are actualized not in the form of the fruit, but in the wine the fruit will continue to produce. Just as grapes require pruning before they are harvested to make wine, so does man need to translate his faith into action and worship. In the course of growing and pruning grapes from its initially being sown as seeds, many factors contribute to the stunted growth of the seeds. Typhoons, erosion and improper tending tend to cause a lot of the seeds to cease growing. Only the tough ones actually grow into a plant that will later on bear fruit, and even as a fruit, these grapes are pruned and harvested and later on made into wine for drinking.

The decision is ours, do we want to remain “grapes” forever? Or do we further submit ourselves to be pruned, harvested and made into wine? Admittedly, becoming a grape forever is the easier road to take. It does not require too much commitment. Nor does it call for a renewal of the self through the direction one chooses. However in choosing to remain to be a grape, man is prematurely actualized. I don’t think it is even sufficient to use the term “actualize” because as a grape, man has yet to reach out fully to God in love. On the other hand, the road that leads to pruning, harvesting and transformation into wine is a road that requires a wholehearted commitment, and a total surrender to God. Thus, it is a road less traveled by man, due to the complex intricacies it presents to the man consumed with the “here and now”.

Sad to say, very few actually make the choice to offer themselves to become grapes for pruning, very few aspire to reach out for the ultimate truth about ourselves as human beings, that at the end of it all, we really are nothing without God. At that point of realization, we are overwhelmed at the discovery that we are who we are because of grace. We are graced beings sent into the world of bodies to become instruments of that grace. Our souls were created as a result of that grace, and as far as eternity is concerned, we never really die. Time, like most of the things here on earth, is a human construct, an element created to supplement the material world. In death, our bodies decompose, but our souls live on simply because we are inextricably bound to God.

At the end of this all, I know what I am, and what I want to be. With all my heart, I can say that I am a grape for pruning, and I’m more than willing and ready to take it from there.