FOMO = The “Fear Of Missing Out.” This is a common expression with younger generations however it is a natural human desire to be a part of a group, gathering, or movement that is bigger than ourselves. Isolation, separation, or being left out as an individual is the state of loneliness and can lead to an immensity of traumas: physical, mental, and spiritual. What Jesus teaches his disciples and all of us in his lessons of love during the Last Supper discourses, as recorded in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of the Gospel of John, is that faith is all about belonging. When we recognize that we as human persons belong in the Love of God, the source of love and the One who created us, then we are fulfilled. Jesus uses the image of branches that belong to a central vine. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” To sever ourselves from our source of nourishment or to “miss out” on the goodness of the Eucharist, the Sacraments, and grace accessed through prayer is to fall into a desolate state of loneliness and to die. However, when we remain in Christ, even if that means having our sinful, prideful, and personal dispositions pruned away, we are most fully alive. And, when we are most alive as a human person, like a healthy and well-nourished tree, we bear fruit. There is the old gospel song that has the refrain, “…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love by our love…” The fruit that we can bear when belonging to the great vine of Jesus Christ is unconditional love. To radiate that love within our families, in our workplaces, throughout our communities, and around our world is to glorify God and to proclaim to the world how wonderful it is to belong to the vine, the Church of Jesus Christ.