Known by Its Own Fruit

Known by Its Own Fruit

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so, do one's faults when one speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind.”  Sirach 27:4-6

“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. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”  Luke 6:43-45

Piety

Alas for You by Stephen Schwartz (from “Godspell”)

Alas, alas for you,

Lawyers and Pharisees

Hypocrites that you be

Searching for souls and fools to forsake them

You travel the land you scour the sea

After you've got your converts you make them

Twice as fit for hell!

As you are yourselves!

Study

My grandfather had a huge garden behind his house.  Actually, he had a small house in front of his garden. In the summer, we would get bags of vegetables.  Lettuce.  Tomatoes.  Radishes.  Carrots. You name it.  If it could be grown in the temperate mid-Atlantic states (or actually on Staten Island), chances are

Tony Rizzo, Gardener

pretty good Tony Rizzo had it growing in his backyard.

Sometimes, he would get a Tomato of Unusual Size (TOUS) on one of the vines [Apologies to The Princess Bride].  As that fruit would ripen, it would be brought inside and harvested for its seeds.  The idea is that a big, fat, juicy, tasty tomato would yield more of the same if he nurtured its seeds in the next growing season.

Good trees bear good fruit.  Good vines bear good tomatoes (and grapes). Finding good fruit is easy if you watch the garden as it grows.  But how can you tell the bad tree and the bad fruit? Sirach comes to our rescue. Wait until you see or hear what it yields.  “As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just.”

Action

“Will the real D. Trusty Servant please stand up?” (Godspell)

Finding the bad tree and the bad fruit is much more difficult because the carpenter’s Son points out that we all have some wooden beams in our eyes that get in the way of seeing clearly. We all would like to think that we are the trusty servant and the good disciple.

Beware of false prophets. Sirach tells us just to wait until they open their mouth.  Kind of makes me not want to write about this for fear that you will actually know my faults and the bent of my mind. Yet, I type onward.

Most if not all of us, are to some degree hypocrites. We pretend to be what we are not but should be. We pretend to be producing good fruit: juicy tomatoes, figs, and grapes, whereas we are only thorn bushes producing little of value.

What wooden beam do you need to remove this coming Lenten season so that you might more rightly share in the title D. Trusty Servant?