On Dwelling in Christ

Taken from Medulla S. Thomae Aquinatis which arranges various short texts from St. Thomas Aquinas' corpus based on the liturgical year. I will be posting the day's meditation each day and will be bringing it into print once I'm through it.

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February 16th

On Dwelling in Christ

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. (John 15:4)

I. Here, he shows that being united to Christ is necessary in order to bear fruit. It is as saying, I say that you should abide in me so that you can bear fruit, because just as the branch literally, a material branch, cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, from whose roots sap ascends to give life to the branches, so neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me. Thus, being united to Christ is the reason why someone bears fruit. And so of those who are not united to Christ we read: what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? (Rom 6:21); the company of the godless is barren (Job 15:34).

His e