LIKE EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (EN). Commentary on the Sunday Gospel. 28-4-2024 (V Easter Sunday B)

LIKE EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (EN). Commentary on the Sunday Gospel. 28-4-2024 (V Easter Sunday B)
Jn 15:1-8 (I am the vine and you are the branches)
Background Image: Edward Scissorhands
Background music: Ice Dance - Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands [HD Piano Cover].
TEXT OF THE VIDEO
I.
Forty years ago, when I was in my early twenties, the last of Pink Floyd's masterpieces, "The Final Cut", was released. It was 1983 and that was my favourite band, I had all their records and certainly that was one of the greatest bands in rock history. It wasn't clear what they meant by that 'Final Cut', perhaps the end of the band (although more of their music came out later), or more likely the decision of the protagonist of the song who, in grief and despair, thinks of committing suicide to put an end to the suffering. Just as he is about to commit suicide, a phone call arrives (the contents of which are not revealed) that changes everything and he desists from giving the 'final cut' to his life.
[...]
II.
Today's Gospel also speaks to us of cutting, as Jesus tells us 'My Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he cuts off, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it may bear more fruit'. The cuts of the Father-farmer, they are not cuts to end something but to begin again, they are 'therapeutic' cuts, that is, cuts necessary to restore life, to produce better fruit.
Last Sunday we spoke of the kintsugi craftsman who, by repairing broken pieces by gluing them together with poured gold, transforms damage into beauty. In the same way, the Father Farmer cuts off useless or dead parts with the skill of an artist to create beauty and life. Like the protagonist of the film 'Edward, Scissorhands' played by an extraordinary John Deep, who with his scissorhands, transformed insignificant objects into works of art. In the same way, through good pruning we can turn the challenges and pains of life into opportunities to grow, learn and create something even more beautiful. Here is where each of us must decide what we need to cut back in our lives in order to blossom and produce fruit. To decide means etymologically 'to cut away'. Making a decision necessarily involves cutting. Our birth itself is marked by a cut, that of the umbilical cord, and this is only the first of many cuts we have to make throughout our lives. So too, the caesarean section is a necessary cut to give life. So until the final cut when we separate from this world. But even the cut of death is a necessary cut to enter eternal life.
Hence the courage to make cuts throughout our existence, to generate life: the important thing is to remain attached to the vine, or rather to the life that is Jesus: "He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing". If we are detached from the vine we are of no use at all. Jesus purposely chose the example of the vine and the branches that, unlike other branches that if detached from the trunk can be used to do something else, branches detached from the vine are of no use at all, except to be thrown into the fire: "Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like the branch and withers; then they gather it up, throw it into the fire and burn it".
III.
In conclusion.
As we have seen, there are cuts and cuts: there are good cuts that give life such as cutting toxic relationships, harmful habits (vices), stress, useless things, a past that is no longer needed, cutting betrayals, infidelity to people who love us, cutting double lives. These are good cuts even though they may hurt at first, like a surgeon's or a gardener's cuts. And then there are bad cuts that kill, cut or rather take away life, such as cutting throats or veins, or self-destructive cuts, or the cuts of those who cut themselves off from the world and from relationships with others (such as young hikikomori or people who cut themselves off), the cuts of those who cut others off from their lives.
The cuts of which the Gospel speaks to us today are good cuts, therapeutic cuts that can only improve our lives. Let us have the courage to identify all that we need to cut and then decide (i.e. cut) once and for all.
Perhaps our cuts will not be worth millions like those of Lucio Fontana, nor like the 'final cuts' of Pink Floyd, who sold more than 250 million records in their career, but we can do like Edward Scissorhands, who was able to make true masterpieces with his cuts. By cutting what needs to be eliminated and pruning what needs to be enlivened, we too can make our lives a work of art. We are not responsible for the incipit of the novel of our life, we are, however, responsible for its plot and its ending.
_________
The videos (in Italian, Portuguese and English) of my comments on the Gospel of Sunday can be found on my Facebook Page, on my KZbin channel or on my Whatsapp channel. The texts of the comments translated into English and Portuguese can be found on my WebPage - Meditations