Sighing, fidgeting, groaning

Teresa of Jesus: Romans 8.22-27 and John 15.1-8
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

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Perhaps all this groaning in Romans this morning is a near eastern tradition, a traditional way of expressing a kind of frustrated anticipation. Nowadays, we fidget. Bounce our legs, tap our fingers, or grind our teeth. Or, my personal favorite, the exasperated sigh. Whatever artful way our impatience blows out of us, we can be sure that being impatient about the perfection of our bodies and souls in Christ will do nothing to move things along. Groan, sigh, tap, bounce, fidget and end up not one iota closer to being perfected in Christ. Paul says in Romans that all this groaning in expectation is just fine, “For in hope we were saved…if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” So, when we hope over and against impatience and we do so with endurance, the Spirit comes to our aid in our weakness and gives us a mouth and tongue for prayer. In fact, we aren’t the only ones groaning. Since we do not how to pray as we ought, “…the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” Ooohhh, now I get it: groaning in anticipation of being perfected in Christ through the Spirit is not just noisy, windy impatience at all but an expression of our own labor pains as each one of us struggles—along with all of creation—to give birth to the Word for the world!

This image of “giving birth to the word” connects with our sisters in Christ better, I think, than it does with our brothers. Though some of us may look as though we are about to give birth, images of motherhood require some intimacy with the biological processes involved to be effective as a teaching method. John gives us another image of our familial connection to Christ that is a bit more universal in its appeal—the analogy of the God the vine grower, Christ the vine, and the we the branches. First, Jesus tells the disciples, “You are already pruned because of the word I spoke to you.” Jesus has cut away the obstacles of sin, the ties that bind, the relationships that impede growth in holiness with him. We are branches prepared to be grafted onto the vine. Next, Jesus admonishes them, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” As a pruned branch, a cut limb, we cannot live apart from the vine. We wither and die without the nourishment of Christ the Branch. We need that organic feed, that biological bond not just to survive but to prosper, to bloom and bear fruit. And if we fail to grow that organic bond—to bloom, to bear good fruit—we die on the branch. And we are pruned away, gathered up, and thrown into the fire. Then the real groaning begins!

Jesus says to his disciples: “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Now, we can go back to fidgeting and tapping and loudly sighing; waiting as our bounce our knees, groaning for our redemption. And while we wait—happily impatient, hopefully annoyed for having to linger here—we remain in Christ and he remains in us, and the Spirit, himself a groaner of the inexpressible, intercedes for us before the throne, insuring that when our impatient hearts are searched, our Father finds a field of good fruit, acres of fresh produce. Remember Christ’s promise: “Remain in my love; whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”