Remain. There is a lot to ponder in this word. It can mean to stay in place where we are, but it can also mean what grounds us or rather, to whom are we joined? Easter is the fruit of sacrifice and of that perfect love on Good Friday, and so it is through love that we remain in Christ and he in us. Love is not simply some sentimental attachment or a gesture of goodwill. Love is that gift of self for the life of another; love unites one to the other.
Jesus reminds us that apart from him we can do nothing because he is the revelation of God's love for humanity. Through him we know of its meaning. We know how to love because it is Christ who loved us first, and this love is poured into our hearts. Love is not something we do, but what is wrought in us. Love must always have Christ as its source and fountain upon which we must always draw.
The more we love one another, the more we remain in him and he in us. The more we love, the more we must drink from its source, and so love begets love. Love is the fruit of itself, and Christ is its source and our life. Life welling within us is the fruit of Christ-centered love. This Easter season we reap the fruits of his sacrifice: the life of his love wrought in us. We offer ourselves to God and one another that his life may remain in us.
"Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me."