Gospel: The Tree is Known by its Fruit

Today marks the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel reading will be lifted from the report of St Luke (6:39-45).

Jesus told his disciples a parable, "Can a blind person guide the blind person? Will not both fall into the pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye," when you do not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye.

"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor thus a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks."

The third and final section of St Luke's Sermon on the Plain begins: And he told them a parable. There are actually four parables, three of which we read today. They are all about how to be a good disciple.

The blind cannot lead the blind. And a disciple cannot be a good disciple unless he or she has learned from the teacher. Everyone who is fully trained is like the teacher who knows how to cure the blind. Before you can be a good disciple and teach others you must take care of yourself. Do not try to take a speck out of your brother's eye until you have taken the board out of your own. Conversely, only when you have purified yourself can you produce good works that the teacher requires. Discipleship asks us to produce good deeds. But to produce them requires the integrity and purity of heart found in the teacher. When people see your good deeds they will know that this is because you have a good heart.

We should not be too quick to correct our Christian brothers when we have an equally grave sin of our own, because this is hypocrisy. Once we have acknowledge that all of us sin, albeit in different forms, we will realize that effective preaching requires humility. If our rhetoric do not match our actions, we will become like the pharisees who are following the law blindly, because an evil person cannot produce or show good deeds, no matter how hard they try to observe their religion. To follow the law is to serve profusely with humble service; to love like Jesus did, without judgment, condemnation, or condition.

Let us pray: Lord, may we become a good disciple by imitating your loving and merciful ways. Help us bear good fruits so as to serve our fellow Christians with the same authority that you did, without the blind temptation of selfish ends, and self-righteousness. Amen.

x--------x

Picture from Pexels.