Bearing Good Fruit

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.”  (Matthew 7:15-20)

Today’s gospel makes everything seem black and white, good trees bear only good fruit and bad trees bear only bad fruit. But we are all shades of gray. Fundamentally, all of us are good because we are made in God’s image, and while this is true, we all have borne bad fruit. We have all been that wolf in sheep’s clothing seeming to have good intentions yet our motives are anything but good.

Discernment is needed in our daily lives and we need to call upon God’s wisdom to help us in this discernment. The devil is very good at making things that are not good, appear to be good. He is that wolf in sheep’s clothing and he will never bear good fruit. Sometimes we think something is just a “little” sin but there is no such thing. Sin always leads us away from God. It creates a barrier that separates us from Him. Often times it’s the little things that we need to be most on guard against. We may stand firm against “big” sins like abortion or adultery but it’s the little sins that are more insidious. They take hold of our hearts and keep us in bondage. Just as the tiny mustard seed grows into a tree, the tiny sins can grow into full chains, or millstones that drag us into darkness and hold us there.

Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord; whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.  This is how we are able to bear good fruit. We must remain in God’s love. Only God’s love is perfect and he is the only one who always bears good fruit. An Examination of Conscience at the end of the day is a good way to look prayerfully into our hearts and see what areas we were strong in our faith and what areas did we struggle. Where are the places that we fell into sin? Once we identify these areas, we can invite the Holy Spirit in to help us and provide for us the gifts that we need to prevent this from happening again. Do we need patience so that we don’t lose our temper and say hurtful things to others? Do we need humility so our pride doesn’t cause us to be judgmental? Whatever grace we need to overcome our sins will be given to us by the Holy Spirit, we just need to ask for them and be willing to receive the grace in order for us to bear good fruit. 

The Narrow Gate

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  (Matthew 7:13-14)

Did God make the gate narrow and constrict the road that leads to life so that only a few can have eternal life? No, he didn’t. God desires all of us to be with Him. That was his original plan. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells us, “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.” (1:4-6) He chose us before he even formed the world and out of love destined us to be with him. We are the ones who have messed up His plan because of our sinfulness. We turned our back on Him yet his desire is the same, he wants us to be with Him. He gave us his Son so that “in him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” (Ephesians 1:7-8)

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”  Just think if we all followed this one rule that Jesus has instructed us to follow. If we would just pause for a moment before we speak and ask ourselves, would I want someone to say this about me?  Even if it is true, Jesus tells us to go approach one another with love.  Jesus didn’t condone the woman caught in adultery but he did address the issue with love and compassion for her. And he made those self-righteous men, that were going to stone her, aware of their own sinfulness. In yesterday’s gospel Jesus tells us to “stop judging!” Just think how much better this world would be if we followed that rule! It is so much easier to judge others because then it takes the focus off of us. It is sometimes painful to look at ourselves, to be honest about our own brokenness and sinfulness.

These are the things that constrict the road that leads to life, our pride, selfishness, unforgiveness, idolatry, lust, envy and the list goes on and on. But through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been cleansed by his blood and are given the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we may die to our desires of the flesh. We are called to bear the image of Jesus Christ in everything that we do. We are called to live a life of holiness and to help one another to do the same so that we may all enjoy eternal life with our King just as He intended it to be.

The Hurt and the Healer Collide

“You’re not the worthless they made you feel, there is a love they can never steal away; and you don’t have to stay the broken girl. Those damaged goods you see in your reflection love sees them differently, love sees perfection; a beautiful display of healing on the way tonight…

Let your tears touch the ground, lay all your shattered pieces down and be amazed how grace can take the broken girl and put her back together again”  ~ Broken Girl by Matthew West

Last year I wrote a meditation after reflecting on Isaiah 43:1-7. In this passage God speaks about gathering his people back together. In my meditation I wrote about being shattered into a million pieces and how for years I have been wandering around picking up the pieces and trying to put me back together again. I wrote how I had been trying so hard but couldn’t seem to find all the pieces. I wrote about trusting others that God had placed in my life to help me heal. I’ve handed over the broken pieces and some have gently put the pieces back together and with God’s love they have healed. But others have taken the pieces that I entrusted to them and thrown them to the ground shattering them into a million pieces and making it even harder to gather them up.

So when I recently heard the words to this new song by Matthew West, it reminded me of my meditation. So often I have focused on my brokenness and my sinfulness but this song reminds me of God’s love. It reminds me that I am not the worthless person that I have always seen myself as. I am not damaged goods. I am a walking example of God’s amazing love. He can take someone so broken and beaten down like I was and make me whole. But in order to do that I had to let go of the shattered pieces I was holding onto. I had to lay them at the foot of the Cross so that His love that pours out from his side could wash over me and bring healing to my hurting heart. This is where His glory meets our suffering. “The moment when humanity is overcome by majesty, when grace is ushered in for good and all our scars are understood.”  This is when “the hurt and the healer collide.”  ~ The Hurt and the Healer by Mercy Me

Only God’s love can heal all the hurt that is happening in our world. I am part of a group of women at my parish that is taking Christ Renews His Parish (CHRP) to a new parish. During the process of preparing for the weekend, we share with one another how God has touched our lives. It is heart-breaking to hear of all the cruel things that we do to one another, especially to our family members. But in the midst of all our suffering we are united with Christ and “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) Only God can take a broken girl and put her back together.

In Secret

In today’s gospel Jesus speaks to us about the proper way of giving alms, praying and fasting. Although there is a lot of focus on these during Lent, these are actions we should incorporate into our daily lives. Prayer is a must each and day. We need to carve out time for our Lord every day. I was talking with a friend last night and she mentioned that ever since she moved away she no longer does Evening Prayer, she doesn’t spend time in Adoration and doesn’t attend Mass every Sunday. She mentioned that she feels like her spiritual life has fallen apart and she feels lost. She has lost her anchor, no wonder she feels lost! We talked about ways that she can get back on track, not trying to incorporate all of these things back into her life at once but setting goals and following through on them. Making the decision to attend Mass every Sunday and not allowing anything to get in the way. Then she can sign up to be a committed Adorer one day a week and when she gets that routine established then adding back in her Evening Prayer or whatever she feels will help her feel that connection with God again.

The reason that Jesus mentions that these are to be done in secret is because he sees the importance of inner disposition and proper motivation. These acts are not meant to be done for public display, admiration or attention. We do them to express our love for God and for one another.  Jesus warns us to not allow our “righteous deeds” to be performed in order that others may see them, otherwise, “you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.”  I know that if someone does something for me not out of sincerity but to be recognized by others, not only do their actions have no meaning but it is even worse than doing them without sincerity of heart. Their motivation is purely selfish and it is a double blow especially if it is a friend or family member. And if we are able to recognize this shallowness in one another imagine what God knows, “who sees all that is secret.” He knows what is in each of our hearts and sees the things that we refuse to believe about ourselves.

God also knows the good in our hearts. He rejoices when our actions are done out of love for Him and him alone. Sometimes we do things out of the goodness of our heart for others and for whatever reason, the other person refuses to see that. Maybe a past hurt, that they refuse to let go of, prevents them from seeing that our actions are truly done out of love. Our heavenly Father knows these things as well and we should hold onto that because what is in our heart is a true reflection of who we are. Continually striving to do what is good and right can sometimes be tiring and difficult especially if it seems to always be an uphill battle. But this is when we need to especially follow Christ’s instructions and “go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” We need to allow the Holy Spirit to renew us so that we have the strength to live a life of love especially to those who are difficult to love.  

Parables

“Christ speaks to us in parables because reality itself is a parable. The parable does not approach our experience of the world from without; on the contrary, it is the parable that gives this experience proper depth and reveals what is hidden in things themselves.”  (Pope Benedict XVI) When we “walk by faith, not by sight” the hidden depths of things become apparent. ~ Magnificat

Parables illustrate some universal truth but they also have some mystery requiring us to delve deeper. Parables were a key part of the teachings of Jesus and often conveyed a deep and central teaching to how we are to live a Christian life. Jesus used images and characters of everyday life to illustrate his message. He used these illustrations to reach the heart of his listeners through their imagination. His parables challenged the mind to discover what God is like and moved the heart to make a response to God’s love and truth. Delving into the mystery allows us to find the treasure that is waiting to be discovered.  If we accept this challenge then we will enter into a deeper relationship with Christ.

Jesus spoke parables to the people of his time but parables speak of timeless realities that we can relate to and they touch the hearts of all mankind if we have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear.” Our hearts need to be open to Jesus’ teachings. God can only reveal the secrets of his kingdom to the humble and trusting person who acknowledges the need for God and for His truth. The parables of Jesus will enlighten us if we approach them with an open mind and heart, ready to let them challenge us. As with scripture, each parable can reveal something new to us at different times in our lives. When we read these parables or hear them during Mass, let us open our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to use these messages of Christ to stir up a deeper hunger in our souls so that we can grow deeper in our love and understanding of our Savior. 

I Didn’t Know

“Thus says the LORD: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know I was their healer. My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One present among you; I will not let the flames consume you .”  (Hosea 11:1,3-4,8-9)

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. God’s love for us is unwavering. We see even in the Book of the Prophet Hosea God’s love expressed in ways that we can understand, like one who raises an infant to his cheek.” God’s love pours forth for all humanity but so often we don’t recognize Him. The Holy One is present among us yet, we don’t know that he is our healer. God has always loved me and cared for me but I was so lost and consumed with fear that I didn’t recognize Him. Even as I began to see who God was and understand that he loves us and sent his Son to die for our sins, I didn’t grasp this Truth. I began to see God’s healing power and was drawn to the gospel stories in which Jesus heals. Two of my favorites are the hemorrhaging woman who believed that just touching the tassel of Jesus’ cloak will bring healing, and the crippled man at the pool in Bethesda where Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be well?” My heart longed to be healed but I didn’t know that it could happen to me. Not because God wasn’t capable but because I believed that I was a hopeless case. I had no sense of self-worth and believed that God saw me that way, too. But God is so merciful. He has brought so much healing into my heart and continues to do so.

One of my continued struggles has been forgiving myself. I’ve heard people talk about having this incredible sense of peace or joy after going to confession, knowing that God has forgiven them. I’ve had times when I did feel peace after confession or a sense that a weight had been lifted from me but yesterday, I truly experienced what others had talked about. I have struggled with a particular sin for a while and even though I had confessed it many times, there were aspects of the situation that I never shared out of shame and guilt. I became more and more aware that this was keeping me caught up in this sin. I’ve been praying for God to give me the courage to be open and honest and to reveal to me who I could trust with this profoundly personal situation. Sensing that this particular priest was that person, I asked him if I could share it with him, to tell the whole story; the history behind how this sin began and the roller coaster of shame, guilt and unforgiveness that I had been on ever since. He didn’t say anything profound, but he was willing to listen without being judgmental like so many others have been. We talked through the situation and I poured my heart out. I let go of all the shame and guilt and felt Christ’s present when the words were spoken, “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His son, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I have never felt such peace. For the first time I feel that I can overcome this sin with the grace of God. I hadn’t experienced this profound sense of peace before, not because God wasn't capable, but because I allowed my shame to prevent this healing. 

Replenished Daily

“She answered, ‘As the LORD, your God, lives, I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.’ Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, “The jar of the flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.”’ She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and Elijah and her son as well; the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:12-16)

Today’s reading about the widow and her jar of flour made me reflect on my own life especially in regards to my work. It has been very hard to know if I still have in me what is necessary to continue caring for children with cancer. We have had such terrible news lately. There has been kids relapsing after they have been cancer-free for years; cancer that is resistant to the chemotherapy and cancer spreading to places that it doesn’t normally spread, especially the brain. I thought going on vacation would help to rejuvenate my soul but I came back to find out that one of my patients had died, two more had relapsed and one whose cancer has now spread to his brain. I found myself at work yesterday wondering how I was going to be able to keep doing this, asking whether or not this is what God wants me to continue doing although I can’t imagine doing anything else.

But during Mass this morning I realized that I am not the one who can provide what I need; only God can do that. Of course, I need to cooperate with God and provide opportunities to receive His love and grace that will restore my soul. I need to spend time in prayer, read scripture and frequent the sacraments but it isn’t me who provides the grace but God alone. I need to have confidence that God will provide for me. Just as the flour and oil never ran out for the widow, the compassion, courage, strength, wisdom and love that I need to carry out the work that God has called me to do will never run dry. It may not be in abundance some days, I may be scraping the bottom for enough to get me through, but what I need will be there and when I return to work the next day, I know that I will be replenished with what I need for that day as well. “Give us this day our daily bread”. I need to trust that God will provide the bread that I need for each day. All I have is today so I shouldn’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow may never come.

To Infinity and Beyond

“As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, ‘How do the scribes claim that Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: “The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’” David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?”  (Mark 12:35-37)

In today’s gospel, Jesus questions the claim of the scribes not to deny what they are saying but to indicate that he is more than this. Christ, the son of David, is simultaneously Lord and Son. And this is a problem for the scribes. What the scribes, and many other people in the time of Christ, were looking for was a Messiah that would have political power and arrive as a warrior, destroying all his adversaries. They were unable to recognize Jesus, the Messiah, in their midst because he wasn’t what they wanted him to be. Jesus’ mission was to restore our relationship with God the Father. Just as the scribes didn’t recognize Jesus in their midst, we at times do not recognize him in our life. Sometimes we want a warrior to come and put an end to the persecution or abuse that we are being subjected to. We want God to heal our loved ones just as Christ did so often in scripture. We want God to raise our loved ones from the dead so that we can have more time with them and maybe during that time we will love them more, appreciate the things they have done for us, forgive the hurts they inflicted on us and ask for forgiveness for the wrongs we have done to them.

To limit God in ways that meet our desires prevents us from seeing how God is working in our lives. We don’t see the greatness of God. To step out in faith is to allow God to be God and accept things that are beyond our understanding. To live a life of faith we must accept that we will be persecuted, that we will suffer, and be mocked at. But to live a life of faith also means that we trust that God is with us, that no matter how difficult life gets, God is there with us in the darkness. Living a life of faith requires us to live beyond our potential, our perceptions, our understanding and our fears. To live a life of faith requires us to live boldly and to trust in God’s infinite love that is beyond our understanding.

Called to a Holy Life

“He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began.”  (2 Timothy 1:9)

Nothing we have done or will ever do on our own makes us holy; we are holy and called to live a holy life because this was God’s design. It is possible for us to live a holy life because of the grace bestowed on us. What does it mean to live a holy life? It is that we follow the example of Christ and live in obedience to God the Father. Living a holy life starts when we detach ourselves from sin. It takes a decision on our part to align our entire being, our mind, will and emotions, with the Word of God and to cooperate with what our recreated spirit wants to do rather than our flesh. How can I be holy when I keep getting tripped up by the same sin over and over? How can I be holy when at times I would rather do what is easy instead of what is right? First of all, I have to remind myself that I certainly can’t do this on my own. Even if I desire to not give into sin, my will is often not enough. I need to deepen my faith in His grace. Our past and present sin cannot contend with the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I cannot let the shame of my sin bind me up and distort what is true. “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24)

Living a life of obedience honors God and God equips us to live a holy life. He sent his Son as a living example of how to live a life of holiness. He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to guide us. He gave us the Church so that we can help one another to live lives of holiness. We pray for one another, we share our struggles with one another and we worship together. He gave us the sacraments so that we can experience Christ in our lives daily especially through the Eucharist. The weight of our sins is lifted when we celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation. God longs for us to be in communion with Him so let us align our thoughts, words and deeds with God and live a life of holiness according to his design.

Trinitarian Love

“Faith in the Trinity rests on God’s revelation of himself in the economy of salvation. We do not have access to the Trinity outside what God revealed to us by sending his own Son and giving us his Holy Spirit. The revelation of the Trinity is accomplished by the coming of God himself into human history: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.’ God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. In these events God himself comes. God is not only at the origin of these events but he also gives himself in them.”  (Fr. Gilles Emery, O.P.)

The mystery of the Trinity is the foundation of our faith. It is through this constant outpouring of love between the Father and Son from which the Holy Spirit is poured forth. This love is perfect and God was in need of nothing else. But God is love and it is from this love that we were created. Not only created, but made in his image and likeness. Through our baptism, the Holy Trinity makes a permanent indwelling in our soul and provides every grace necessary to live a life of faith. This sacrament allows us access to the inner life of God Himself: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The beautiful mystery of the Trinity will always remain just that, a mystery, to us. During his homily today, the priest pointed out that we can become frustrated by the fact that we will never understand it or we can embrace it, knowing that as we seek to understand it, we will draw closer to God. I have found that as I learn more about God through his revelation to me that my desire for him grows. I know that we will never comprehend the magnitude or awesomeness of God, which is a good thing. If we could understand everything about him then he wouldn’t be God. During Biblical School, there would be homework questions that required us to delve deeper into scripture to find the answer or to ponder how God has worked some way in my own life. Answering the question was often just the “tip of the iceberg” so to speak. Sometimes I would spend an hour on one question because my desire to know and experience God in a more profound way had been stirred up inside me and I love that. I find it incredible that the more we know about God the more we realize that there is so much that we don’t know about Him. This holy longing for our creator is in each one of us. God touches our lives with this Trinitarian love as God the Father, God the Son, by being united with Christ and infused with God the Holy Spirit. May each of us embrace this love and receive the gift that God gives to each of us, Himself.