Lumen Fidei: The Vine and the Branches

We often speak as though to be a Christian you have to be good—as though being good was a necessary precondition for being a Christian. In fact, the dynamic points the other way: it is through faith in Christ that we can truly become better than we are.

The thing about being good is that it takes energy. It is work. And although it is work that we can undertake on a purely human level, given that the natural law is available to everyone, it is not a task that we can complete on our own.

In paragraph 19 of Lumen Fidei, consequently, Pope Francis talks about the importance of remaining rooted in Christ:

Paul rejects the attitude of those who would consider themselves justified before God on the basis of their own works. Such people, even when they obey the commandments and do good works, are centered on themselves; they fail to realize that goodness comes from God.

Note that he’s not speaking of atheists, here; he’s speaking about us, we Christians, when we fail to root ourselves in faith in Christ. The pope continues,

Those who live this way, who want to be the source of their own righteousness, find that the latter is soon depleted and that they are unable even to keep the law. They become closed in on themselves and isolated from The Lord and from others; their lives become futile and their works barren, like a tree far from water.

Have you ever met someone so consumed with self-righteousness that he is hateful to everyone around him? Someone eternally disapproving of the mere mortals at his either hand, who do not measure up to his high and lofty standards? Someone who cannot help anyone without at the same time irritating and frustrating them?

Me, I’m lucky; I’ve mostly run into such characters in books. But this picture isn’t simply a strawman—it’s a regular temptation for me. I could easily be that person—if I weren’t too lazy, and if it weren’t so fatiguing, and if it weren’t for God’s marvelous grace. It is grace to remember that I am small, and that even that goodness I do purely “on my own” of my own resources I do through God’s goodness, make using of the gifts He gave me at my birth. It is grace to remember to be rooted in Christ, to be a branch grafted on His vine, to let the water of His love flow freely through me.

Or, more likely, trickle rather than flow freely. But a trickle is better than a drought, and a trickle may turn into a torrent in time.