273. Twelfth Wednesday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 259 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Our Lordâs call to the Work asks us for apostolic fruits.
Our Lord wants to remind us today that he is expecting us to produce fruits of sanctity and apostolate. He suggests a comparison: Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? ⌠A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
The fruit our Lord asks us for is souls. The Judge will call us to strict account for our neighbourâs soul, just as much as for our own, writes St John Chrysostom. And this is why St Paul constantly exhorts us not to think of our own interests but those of our neighbour ⌠Could anyone really ask, âWhat business have I with other people? If anyone is lost, they are lost; if anyone is saved, they are saved.â It was precisely to put a stop to that sort of pitiless, inhuman reasoning, that the Apostle raised up a wall of rules for us, telling us repeatedly to leave aside our own interests and look to our neighbourâs instead.
We must produce fruit constantly, because time is short. The formation we receive never ceases, and it is comparable to the patient work of the vine-dresser, who prunes the good branches in order to make them yield still more fruit. All of our formation must result in deeds. Our spirit has to be blood and life, sap for every kind of plant, so that our tree bears divine fruit. However, there may be times when the fruit is slow in coming. Our Lord puts our faith to the test, and then it seems as though we are labouring in vain. Donât worry, our Father tells us at times like these, if your apostolate seems fruitless now. When you sow holiness, nothing is ever wasted. Others will reap the harvest.
We have seen the truth of these words a thousand times over. We have seen long-forgotten seeds suddenly germinate under the dew of grace; we have had the joy of reaping an abundant harvest after other people had sown the seed. There is always a harvest. This is a law of the supernatural life, because every sound tree bears good fruit. But we should look and see whether we are sowing generously, whether our spirit of proselytism is shown in specific deeds, and whether we are using all the supernatural and human means.
You will know them by their fruits, Our Lordâs words hold an echo of the mysterious words at Belshazzarâs feast, which the prophet Daniel interpreted: You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. With Godâs grace, always given abundantly, this will never be said of us, if we are faithful.
We have the means to be effective.
It often happens that you donât see any fruit, because the material you are working with seems so rough. But your teachings, your example, your patience, the loving kindness you pour out, your knowledge, and the way they see you pray⌠all of that has its effect. And without realizing it, you are forming them. Very possibly it will be your successors who reap the harvest, so that the Gospel words come true once again: One sows and another reaps. So you might be working there for many years and still never enjoy the flowers or the fruits⌠Well, blessed be God!
We must not forget that supernatural fruit comes from God alone, but our Lord is counting on our work. And so, although we are useless instruments, although all we seem to harvest is our own failures, we have to do all that we can to bring souls to God. In heaven weâll see the fruits of our good will.
Be convinced of this: I have to use all the means available, and if I do, even though I may not make a single convert, I will have done Godâs Will; and in addition, in heaven I will meet all the people I did convert, in reality⌠Recognize your failures, but donât make a virtue of not caring. How it hurts me when a priest or religious doesnât try to get vocations for the diocesan seminary, or for their novitiate! Itâs almost always a sign that they themselves are not happy in their vocation, that they even feel deprived. But when, by contrast, we love the special choice God made of us when he invited us to cooperate with him, to co-redeem, then, without any silliness, without any fanfare on the outside, we feel not just a desire but a hunger to pass on this madness to more people! Itâs something that just comes naturally, like your heartbeat.
I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. In the Work we have all the means to achieve holiness and bear fruit. Our Lord asks us for it, because this is the reason why he set our lives alight with his grace. My children, through your example and your words you must transmit this divine fire to the people around you, raising their spiritual temperature at the very least, even if you canât set them on fire. That is a sure sign of true zeal.
Together with the supernatural means - prayer, mortification, and communication of the Word of God - use the human means too: the witness of a life of work well done, sincere friendship, loyal affection, and your attractive character. Then the miracle worked by Jesus Christ our Lord will be repeated in many souls: you will give sight to many blind people with a wonderful healing ointment made up of your clay and Godâs grace.
This apostolic zeal is not a question of temperament, or the way you are, or any particular idiosyncrasies. It is something supernatural: the fruit of the workings of grace in your soul.
Abundant, lasting fruit: the result of humility and zeal for souls.
You will know them by their fruits. A good tree is recognized by the quality of the fruit it bears. But we canât always judge from appearances. There can be fruit which looks lovely on the outside but is riddled with maggots, and there can be plants which seem to be flourishing but which are really barren, like the leafy fig-tree in the parable, which the owner had taken such care over, but which nevertheless produced no figs.
Fruit attains its full measure of goodness when it comes from a soul that is humble. Just as food needs salt to give it flavour, so there must always be humility in our lives. My daughters and sons, the comparison Iâm about to make is not my own; itâs one that spiritual writers have been using for more than four centuries. Donât behave like hens, that strut about cackling triumphantly as soon as they have managed to lay an egg. You have to work. And the work you do, whether intellectual or manual, but always apostolic, must be carried out with great intentions and great desires of serving God and passing unnoticed. And our Lord will make those desires come true âŚ
And if he allows you to see that he wants to make use of you, that he is in fact making good use of you right now, and has been doing so for some years, or even for a very long time, in gratiarum semper actione maneamus! - may we always remain in an act of thanksgiving! Burst into acts of thanksgiving to God our Lord, for seeking us out to be his instruments. But your thanks must be sincere. Otherwise you will merely be a leafy tree, laden with foliage, and perhaps with fruit, but empty, insubstantial fruit because it doesnât cause the branches to bend low. When the fruit is ripe, luscious, and juicy, sweet to the taste, it weighs the branches of the tree down in humility.
Fruits of holiness: this is the kind of fruit which our Lord is asking us for, and which people are expecting of us. There are no excuses: âthe thing is, I didnât receive the formation I needed; the thing is, Iâve been ill; the thing is, I havenât got the right qualitiesâŚâ
Woe betide those who adorn themselves with the leaves of a false apostolate, who show off the foliage of a life that looks fertile, but has no real fruit! They seem to be using their time well, but they are barren trees.
My children, we must be trees that bear fruit. There are trees which have nothing to offer those who go up to them: all theyâve got is leaves⌠We must bear fruit, fruit to satisfy the hunger of the souls that come to us. For we have all the supernatural means and plenty of doctrine; and, if we want to, with our Lordâs grace and in spite of our own wretchedness, we are in a position to lead a life - Christâs life within us - that can enlighten other people and inspire them to follow him.
The secret of effectiveness is personal holiness. That is the only way we can bring people to God. But at the same time, holiness needs to be shown in deeds: a good tree flourishes and grows like a cedar in Lebanon. We cannot stand by with our arms folded, doing nothing. This concern must be translated into constant prayer and into deeds. Your apostolic zeal will lead you to go out to all the crossroads of the world to look for souls, to tell them about Jesus Christâs calling. Because, as St John Chrysostom says, although Christ could have stayed in one place and attracted people to himself to hear his preaching, he did not do so. He set us an example, so that we too should take to the roads, in search of those who are lost, just as the shepherd searches for a sheep that has strayed, or the doctor goes out to visit a patient.
You will go and seek them out wherever they are, to attract them to the warmth of our spirit, to the divine light of our work of formation ⌠to set them on fire, to purify them, to fill them with doctrine and love for God, and with a noble devotion to our Lady, to the Holy Church, and to the Pope.