Fruit is a product of our life

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary invite us to contemplate Wisdom from the Great Tradition that aids our transformation to life in the Spirit.

Growing fruit

The Book of Sirach emphasizes how our external behaviour is a window on our internal state.

* [27:4–7, 11–15] The importance of effective speech is a favorite wisdom topic; e.g., cf. 20:1–8, 18–20; 22:27–23:15.1 

The text from the First Letter to the Corinthians declares the transformation of the corruptible in the resurrection to incorruptibility.

* [15:54–55] Death is swallowed up in victory: scripture itself predicts death’s overthrow. O death: in his prophetic vision Paul may be making Hosea’s words his own, or imagining this cry of triumph on the lips of the risen church.
* [15:56] The sting of death is sin: an explanation of Hosea’s metaphor. Death, scorpion-like, is equipped with a sting, sin, by which it injects its poison. Christ defeats sin, the cause of death (Gn 3:19; Rom 5:12).2 

In the Gospel from Luke, Jesus shares Wisdom passages about judging others and knowing a tree by it's fruit.

Molly Mattingly is concerned that we get directions, advice, instructions, advertisements, etc. from many different voices on a daily basis.

It can be difficult to pick out God’s voice amidst the clamor. Often we even add to the clamor for others! Jesus tells us today that it is important to listen to his voice, the good teacher, and to be attentive to the interior work we need to do with him. Then he can draw good fruit from us, and others can recognize us as good teachers, too.4 

Don Schwager cites Charles Reade about producing good fruit versus bad fruit in our lives.

Why does Jesus set figs and grapes over against thorns and brambles (Luke 6:33-35)? The fig tree was the favorite of all trees for the people of Palestine. It symbolized fertility, peace, and prosperity. Grapes, likewise, produced wine, the symbol of joy. Thorns and brambles were only good for burning as fuel for the fire. There's a proverbial saying that you know a tree by its fruit. Likewise a person will produce good or bad fruit depending on what is sown in the heart. Charles Readee said: "Sow an act and you reap a habit.  Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny." Character, like fruit, doesn't grow overnight. It takes a lifetime.5 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 6:39-45 comments that people love to judge other people and give advice, even when they don’t have much to offer. It can be kind of cute to see children spouting off about topics they know nothing about, but it gets a little scarier when they grow up.

As Jesus points out in today’s Gospel, we can be particularly prone to offering unnecessary, as well as ill-conceived, advice in the spiritual or moral realm. It can seem so clear to us what needs to happen in someone’s life that it’s hard to hold back. But when it comes to our own lives, we are more cautious because we see the big picture, and we know there is no quick and easy fix.
Only God sees the true big picture. And because he does, he treats us with unending patience, grace, and mercy. What a comforting truth this is! You can rest peacefully, secure in the faith that your heavenly Father has you in the palm of his hand.6 

Friar Jude Winkler points out the connection from nature to one’s spiritual life in the Wisdom in Sirach. In the resurrection the corruptible will put on incorruptibility. The sting of sin is death. Death was always in the world but sin has made the consequence of death bad. Friar Jude comments that the instructions for the good life in Sirach become the Godly life in Luke.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that the prologue to John’s Gospel gives us a wonderful vision of the Christ Mystery. [1] John uses the word Logos, which Fr. Richard takes to mean blueprint. It is the inner pattern of reality, revealed in Jesus and in creation.

 We also are the Body of Christ, as is all of the universe. The Apostle Paul used a perfect metaphor: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. . . . Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27). I love to think of every flowing stream, every waterfall, and every river as “baptizing” the physical universe, washing away its inability to know how glorious it is. (Read a few Mary Oliver poems if you want to get the same message.)7

The Wisdom in our tradition points to the way in which our interior awareness of our life in the Body of Christ is transmitted to the people we encounter.

References

1	(n.d.). Sirach chapter 27 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Retrieved March 3, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/Sirach/27:4
2	(n.d.). 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/1Corinthians/15:54
3	(n.d.). Luke, chapter 6. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/luke/6:39
4	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved March 3, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
6	(n.d.). 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/03/03
7	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive: March 2019 - Center for Action and .... Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/03