Bear Fruit

October 25, 2008

Saturday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head. Ephesians 4:15

[The gardener] said to him in reply, “Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.” Luke 13:8-9

Piety

Let us pray: God, help the men of Cursillo to grow in every way into the sonship of Jesus. Use the team, candidates and spiritual directors as different parts of your body to build a community founded on love so that they may bear fruit. Amen.

Study

As you read today’s scriptures, think of the Men on the 117th Cursillo. They are being served an opportunity for confirmation and conversion in faith. Today’s readings fertilize the call for growth and conversion that they will hear in the talks today – among these are talks on the sacraments, talks on the obstacles, and talks on grace.

Remember back to your weekend, as each talk, discussion, poster and activity built upon each other to ultimately bear fruit in your life. Repent mean to change. Repent means to convert. Repent means to turn back toward the Lord.

St. Paul warns us of the false teachers. He asks that “we may no longer be infants,
tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery,
from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.” Remember just last Sunday, the Gospel related the famous story about the Pharisees asking Jesus about paying the tax to Caesar – they were resorting to human trickery and deceitful scheming to trap Jesus into saying something against the Roman occupation government and army.

Jesus today reminds us to repent. That has several connotations. First is contrition. We have to regret what we did before when we were not bearing fruit. Repentance means that the action about which we are sorry is in the past…we are no longer doing that but instead doing something else. The second implication is change. We are sorry and we change.

Action

Let us not confine our works of love. The spirit of the weekend calls on us as Christians (who share the Cursillo experience and way of life) to live like the gardener. Let us water our plants, fertilize the ground, and prune out of our life the obstacles.

Today, spend some time outdoors watching as the plants get ready for winter by dropping their many colored leaves and becoming dormant. Remember that after every autumn, eventually, there will come a spring, a resurrection of life. It is because of that resurrection that we shall go rejoicing to the House of the Lord.

PS: Pick up some figs or other fruits today and taste the sweetness that symbolizes a life of friendship with the Lord.

PPS: Remember Mañanita Sunday morning at Missionhurst and closing at Our Lady Queen of Peace in the afternoon.