You Can Tell A Tree By Its Fruit
Wednesday of the Twelfth week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
This is the season for trees to bear fruit. If they don’t, it might mean they were hit by frost and therefore unable to bear fruit this year, it might mean they are sick and need special doctoring, it might mean they have become worthless. Those who own orchards are always checking their trees to see how they are doing. We must do the same with ourselves.
“Any sound tree,” says Jesus “bears good fruit, while a decayed tree bears bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit any more than a decayed tree can bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You can tell a tree by its fruit.”
Human beings, like fruit trees, are supposed to contribute something good to the world in which we live. If we don’t, then there is something wrong with us as there is something wrong with fruit trees that don’t bear. And we are obliged to find out what that wrong is and do our best to rectify it. But often, as a tree doesn’t know what is wrong with itself, there are people who might not know what is wrong with them. Maybe they are unaware of anything being wrong at all. They might be blind to themselves and the value of their lives. They might be spiritually blind. And drift through life consuming rather than contributing. Can you and I ever become afflicted with that disease?
We must make sure we never allow our prayers and Masses to become merely routine, habitual words and actions without our hearts in them. Spiritual lethargy and spiritual blindness can creep into the lives of even the most religious.
Check yourself out periodically and see if you are bearing good fruit. We all must remain aware of the value of what we are saying and doing.
