26 June 2013
Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
“Fear not!”
Comforting words for us indeed; particularly in light of yesterday’s talk of Sodom and a broad road leading to destruction. Those who are faithful to God, who rely upon Him as their shield, will be fruitful, and abundantly so. To further encourage us, however, God not only gives us His Word, but He makes a covenant with us; He gives us Himself. While at first glance the covenant God makes with each of us at our baptism may not seem as dramatic as the one He makes with Abram, really we are only seeing the surface: at our baptism it is God who provides the sacrifice of His Son. Truly we are His and He is ours and, as the psalm says, “He remembers forever His covenant.”
Armed with this encouragement we are ready to live our Christian lives in the world. Before we go out Jesus gives us some good advice, realizing that we are likely to run into some interesting people. Today, more than ever, the world is full of conflicting messages and “alternative” gospels; many of them are quite misleading and powerfully seductive. How are we to know the Truth? Remember what God taught Abram: a covenant is fruitful. Look at the message proclaimed as well as the one proclaiming it and see if either bears any good fruit. If it does not, then we know to pay it no heed and to proclaim the Truth that much more fervently. We may also see Jesus’ words today as a kind of examination of our own Christian witness: what fruit do I bear in my Christian life? What can I do to be even more fruitful?
“Every good tree bears good fruit”; set your roots deep in the Truth of the Gospel and the Sacred Tradition of the Church, be watered by the graces of your baptism and nourished by the Eucharist, and you will bear fruit enough to feed a multitude.