An old school friend of mine is an aircraft engineer, he told me once, that a single hexagonal nut holds the whirling rotors of a helicopter in place. That nut is nicknamed the ‘Jesus nut.’ Jesus describes himself as the true vine and we are the branches feeding from the vine. Just as the ‘Jesus nut’ is the centre of the rotary blades holding them together, Jesus is the centre of our lives holding us together. We were grafted onto the vine on the day we were baptized. We draw strength from Jesus to give us the energy to live Christian lives, when we pray, when we gather here every Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist, every time we receive the sacraments, every time we read the Bible. In the Gospel today Jesus asks us to make our home in him. The Eucharist, the sacraments, the Bible, the Rosary are just some of the ways in which we make our home in Jesus. There are many seductions and distractions in our world also inviting us to make our home in them, but if we do our branch will wither and we will not bear fruit. So we need to make our home in Jesus. He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life and when we make our home in him we bear fruit. In our second reading John also says we are to bear fruit as he says, “Our love is not to be just words or mere talk…” Are we bearing fruit for the kingdom of God? Is our Christian love real and active, something that inspires others, or is it just words and mere talk? In our first reading, Barnabas also bears fruit and shows a Christian love that is not just words or mere talk but something real and active when the Church in Jerusalem doubted the genuineness of Paul’s conversion and Barnabas introduced Paul to them assuring them of his conversion. We all know what a difference Paul made to the Church. And it was Barnabas who prepared the way for Paul. So what a difference it makes to the whole Church when we bear fruit and love with a Christian love that is real and active and not just words or mere talk. Just as the Jesus nut is the centre of the helicopter rotary blades holding them together, Jesus is the centre of our lives holding us together. Jesus asks us to make our home in him so that we can bear fruit. Are we bearing fruit for the kingdom of God? Is our Christian love real and active or just words and mere talk?