I have a vivid recollection of my mother telling me in my early teenage years that a tree is known by its fruits. At the time, I was trying to understand why I was not allowed to hang out with a certain boy in my hometown. Rather than give me a straight answer, my mother spoke using a local aphorism, “If a goat that doesn't eat yam starts hanging out with another goat that eats yam, the goat that doesn’t eat yam will learn to eat yam.” Her words really stimulated my thought, and when I understood the meaning of what she said, I went back to her and asked, “Mama, but how do you know that he is a bad boy?” My mother replied, “A tree is known by its fruits.” Some years after, I realized my mother was right. That boy, who is now a grown man wasn’t able to graduate from the university due to his waywardness; he had fallen into serious trouble with the law a few times and had been jailed as well. His life is still pathetic even to date.
In our today’s Gospel passage, which is part of the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus is speaking about hypocrites and false teachers and then says, “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit.” The type of fruit you produce reveals the type of person you are. What precisely tell where you are in your spiritual life and journey is the kind of fruit you bear. And the kind of fruit you produce is ultimately what will determine your eternal destination and reward. What are those fruits? In Galatians 5:22, St. Paul calls them the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Sisters and brothers, just as fruit bearing is the whole point of agriculture, so it is with Christianity.
Fr. Marcel
No comments:
Post a Comment