X — FRUITS OF LIFE

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Presence of God. — Help me, O Lord, not to be content with words, but to produce fruits of holiness.

Meditation

1 — Today the Epistle and the Gospel speak to us of the true fruits of Christian life and invite us to examine what fruits we have borne up to now. When “you were slaves of sin,” says St. Paul, you bore fruits of death; “but now, freed from sin and made servants of God, you have your fruit unto sanctification.” Our sanctification must be the fruit of our Christian life, and here is the point on which to examine ourselves: what progress do we make in virtue? what is our fidelity to our resolutions? Every Christian can consider himself as a tree in the Lord’s vineyard. Jesus Himself, divine Gardener, planted him in good, fertile, fruitful soil, the soil of the Church’s garden, watered by the living water of grace; He surrounded him with the most tender care, pruning useless branches by means of trials, healing his evils by his Passion and Death, watering his roots with his most precious Blood. So much has He cared for him that He can say: “What more ought I to have done to my vineyard that I have not done?” (Is. 5:4). But after so much care, one day Jesus comes by to see what fruits this tree bears, and by its fruits He will judge it, because “a good tree cannot produce bad fruits, nor a bad tree produce good fruits” (Gosp.). If before Redemption humanity was like a wild tree capable only of bearing fruits of death, with Redemption it has been grafted into Christ, and Christ, who nourishes us with his very sap, has every right to find in us fruits of holiness, of eternal life. Words and sighs are not enough; even faith is not enough, for “faith, if it has not works, is dead” (Jas. 2:17). Facts are needed, practice of God’s will is needed, because “not everyone who says to me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Gosp.).

2 — In today’s Gospel Jesus fixes our attention on “false prophets” who appear “clothed as sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” Many like to pose as teachers of morals or spirit, but they are false teachers because their works do not correspond to their words. It is easy, in fact, to teach well, but it is not easy to live well. Sometimes the doctrines proposed are false in themselves, even if at first glance they do not seem so because they are dressed in certain aspects of truth. False is that doctrine which in the name of one evangelical principle offends others, which, for example, in the name of compassion for individuals harms the common good, which in the name of charity offends justice or forgets obedience to legitimate superiors. False is that doctrine which causes laxity, disturbs peace and unity, which under pretext of a better good divides subjects from superiors, which does not bend to the calls of authority. Jesus wants us “simple as doves,” far from criticism and severe judgment of neighbor, but He also wants us “prudent as serpents” (Mt. 10:16), so that we do not let ourselves be deceived by false appearances of good that hide pernicious snares.

Besides, being teachers is not for everyone, nor is it required of everyone. To everyone, however - learned and ignorant, teachers and disciples - the Lord asks the concrete practice of Christian life. What would it profit us to have deep and lofty doctrine if we then did not live according to this doctrine? First, then, before wanting to be teachers to others, let us seek to be teachers to ourselves, committing ourselves to live integrally the teachings of the Gospel, imitating Jesus who began to do and then to teach (cf. Acts 1:1). The genuine fruit that must prove the goodness of our doctrine and our life is always that indicated by Jesus: the fulfillment of his will. Fulfillment that means full adherence to divine and ecclesiastical laws, loyal obedience to legitimate superiors, fidelity to one’s own duties, and all this in every circumstance, even when it requires from us renunciation of our personal views, of our will.

Colloquy

“O eternal God, in the time when man was a tree of death, You remade him a tree of life by grafting Yourself into him! And yet many men because of their defects produce nothing but fruits of death, because they do not graft themselves into You, eternal life. Many remain in the death of their sins and do not come to the fountain where Christ’s Blood is to water their tree... and thus it is seen that You created us without us, but You do not want to save us without us.

“But what dignity, O God, the soul grafted into You receives, and what excellent fruits it produces! And from where does this tree draw these fruits of life, while of itself it is sterile and dead? It draws them from You, O Christ, for had You not grafted Yourself into it, no fruit could it produce by its own power, because it is nothing.

“O eternal Truth, inestimable Love, as You, O Christ, produced for us fruits of fire, of love, of light, of prompt obedience, by which obedience You ran as enamored to the shameful death of the Cross and gave us these fruits by the graft of your Divinity in our humanity, so the soul grafted into You attends to nothing but your honor and the salvation of souls: it becomes faithful, prudent, patient. Be ashamed, my soul, that by your defects you deprive yourself of so great a good! My good brings no utility to You, O God, nor does my evil harm You, but You desire that your creature produce fruits of life, so that it may receive infinite fruit and attain the end for which You created us all.

“O God, your high and eternal will wants nothing but our sanctification; therefore the soul that desires to sanctify itself strips itself of its own will and clothes itself in yours. O sweetest One, to this it seems to me there is truest sign of those who are grafted into You: that they follow your will in your way and not in theirs, that they are clothed with your will” (cf. St. Catherine of Siena).