Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 16, 2023 - Saturday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Tim 1:15-17 and Luke 6:43-49]"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit....A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. [Luke]
SEPTEMBER 16 STS. CORNELIUS AND CYPRIAN [martyrs 3rd century AD]
INTEGRITY is the word that springs to my mind as I ponder St. Luke's version of Jesus' words about bearing fruit. The Gospel According to Matthew records the most familiar line: "By their fruits, you shall know them." [Matthew 7:20] Although all of us ordinary humans are sinners, much of what Jesus says in these words refers to the fundamental orientation of the person - the fullness of the heart. This is why the Sermon on the Mount (or in the case of the Gospel According to Luke, "on the plain"), is so penetrating, because it speaks not only to our behavior, but to our very motives and feelings. But, as we know, good intentions need translation into good actions so that good witness to the gospels can happen. The "fullness of the heart" will bear fruit in good words and deeds, but that fullness requires steady maintenance in the face of the secular challenges of everyday life.
I once saw a sign that read: "No one is completely worthless, They can always serve as a bad example." The gospel challenges us to go well beyond that, to be sure. The fullness of the heart is a way of saying "integrity" inside and out. As Luke will quote later on: "Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?" [Luke 11:40]. The fullness of the heart can be deep, but God knows all of it. The challenge is for us to know ours as well and aim for bearing good fruit. AMEN