Bearing Fruit and Growing

Bearing Fruit and Growing

Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Just as in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth, as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave, who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. Colossians 1:6b-8

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them. Luke 4:38-39

Piety

From "A Step Along the Way" By Bishop Ken Untener (Saginaw)

…We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Study

With our feet firmly planted on Luke 4, Jesus is just setting out on his ministry. The people in Nazareth go from being childish followers to traitors within less than 30 verses. At first, they do not see Jesus as a rabbi who preaches with any authority. (“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”) They would recognize a rabbi based upon the person’s training.  

However, Jesus admonishes them that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him out of childishness and into mature spirituality.”

Jesus recognized that we do not immediately ascend to the top rung of the ladder of ministry. We get there by passing through childhood stages (chronological childhood as well as emotional childhood which may defy our years). At an immature level, we are only concerned with “me, myself, and I.” Babies need parents for food, clothing and shelter, and emotional well-being. Once we know who will be our provider, we then want to hold onto that person or persons. We have to learn to let go and see that they will still be there when we need the providers.

Jesus attends to the illness afflicting Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. With this, she begins to follow Jesus. Then, people bring others who are ill to Jesus.

We see in Luke how Jesus keeps moving on. Jesus starts small healing Peter’s mother-in-law. Then he moves on to healing those small groups who come to him. Jesus cannot stop there. Jesus sets the example for our development when he tells his followers that he has to leave Capernaum. They were still childish and holding on. But Jesus reminded them: “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God because for this purpose I have been sent.” 

Jesus tied up his entire identity in God and service to God. He lost his human identity as Jesus of Nazareth as he accepted his responsibilities as the Son of God. The followers, too, went through stages until they recognized Jesus as Messiah, not as the carpenter’s son.

Action

CRS has opened a fund to assist the people of the Bahamas where the storm hit with devastation and then lingered over the tapped islanders for days.  After battering the island, Hurricane Dorian has left families homeless and virtually destroyed the land. Rains and flooding continue to affect relief efforts and communication is limited.

Catholic Relief Services—along with local partners—is working quickly to assess immediate needs. Donations help bring relief, in the form of food, emergency shelter, and safe water, to affected families.

Families affected by Hurricane Dorian urgently need your help. Please fill out the donation form to make a much-needed gift.