4. Manete in me: et ego in vobis. Sicut palmes non potest ferre fructum a semetipso, nisi manserit in vite: sic nec vos, nisi in me manseritis.4. Abide in me: and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.

4. Abide in me, and I in you. The meaning is: take care that ye abide in Me by faith and love, and I will abide in you by [pg 269] love and grace.[100] Or it may be that the last clause too is imperative in conception: permit me to abide in you. Since they are exhorted to abide, it follows that they were free not to abide; and hence it is possible, as the Council of Trent defined (Sess. vi., Can. 23) to fall away from faith and grace. Of itself—that is, as the source of its vital energy.

5. Ego sum vitis, vos palmites: qui manet in me et ego in eo, hic fert fructum multum: quia sine me nihil potestis facere.5. I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

5. The theme (verse 1) is again repeated, and now there is added the clause: Ye are the branches, which definitely sums up what was already implied in the preceding verses. For without me you can do nothing. These words show that, though as we have seen in the preceding verse the Apostles were free not to abide in Him, they were not able of themselves to abide in Him or to bear any supernatural fruit except through His grace. The words refute the Pelagian and Semipelagian heresies, for they show that without the aid of Christ's grace we are capable of no supernatural good work. “Sive ergo parum, sive multum, sine illo fieri non potest, sine quo nihil fieri potest” (St. Aug. in loc.). It would be difficult, we think, to prove from this text by itself that even where habitual grace is present, actual grace is also necessary in order to a salutary work; but the traditional interpretation given to this text by the fathers forbids us to doubt that the necessity of actual grace also is here revealed.

There is no question in this text of the necessity of God's concurrence in our natural acts; the question is of Christ's influx as mystic vine upon the [pg 270] faithful who remain united to Him as branches.

6. Si quis in me non manserit, mittetur foras sicut palmes: et arescet et colligent eum, et in ignem mittent, et ardet.6. If any one abide not in me: he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.

6. Observe the variety of tense in the verbs of this verse in the Greek text. “Sensus est: Si quis in me non manserit, jam eo ipso ejectus est foras sicut palmes et exaruit” (Beel., Gr. Gram., § 41, 5, b). The casting forth and withering happen simultaneously with the separation from Christ. The words of the verse indicate the punishment which is in store for those who die separated from Christ. In the Greek we have αῦτὰ (ea) instead of “eum” of the Vulgate; and the sense, is that as men usually gather up the withered branches (αὐτα), and fling them into the fire, where they burn, so shall the angels of God do to the sinner. See Matt. xiii. 41.

7. Si manseritis in me, et verba mea in vobis manserint: quodcumque volueritis petetis, et fiet vobis.7. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you.

7. In contrast with the unhappy condition of those separated from Christ, they who remain in Him by faith, and keep His words through charity working by faith, shall obtain from God through prayer whatever they ask, provided it be necessary or useful to their spiritual life. “Whatsoever we shall ask according to His will He heareth us” (1 John v. 14).

8. In hoc clarificatus est Pater meus, ut fructum plurimum afferatis, et efficiamini mei discipuli.8. In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples.