Book of Sirach 27:4-7; Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 15:54-58; Gospel According to Saint Luke 6:39-45
Have you ever counted how many times in the course of the day you interact with others, even with the same person? I certainly have never counted, but maybe it would be worth doing some days. The most important question, though, is this: what is the quality of my interaction with others, whomever they may be? Do I treat others in a positive and charitable way, or just the opposite?
The Scripture readings for this Sunday focus on the matter of our dealings with others, be they family, friends, colleagues, co-workers, or whoever enters our life day in and out.
No one is an island, and we probably all have many opportunities in the course of the day to do good to others. Too often, we might all admit, we fail in one way or another in this work, but we must never give up the effort.
The first reading today, from the Book of Sirach, indicates that what we express in our speech reveals who we are. What we say matters, and it can be life-giving or the opposite. Just as fruit reveals the quality of the tree, so too what we say and do is an indication of our inner self.
Even if we fool or deceive others by our words or deeds for that matter, we cannot fool God, who knows our inmost self. For the follower of Christ, the call is to be a person of integrity, not of duplicity.
When Jesus spoke to his disciples, he often did so in parables, as in today’s Gospel passage. He used examples from daily life to illuminate a point he wished to make.
The overarching theme of Jesus was love, to be offered everywhere and at all times. Jesus spoke against the attitude of ignoring our defects, and the importance of speaking and acting with goodness from the heart.
“Each tree is known by its yield,” Jesus taught, meaning the fruit we produce inevitably springs from who we are, what we believe, what we hold near and dear. Expressed another way, honesty and authenticity should be hallmarks of all who follow Jesus.
We are being asked by the Lord to be honest in our speech, always avoiding judgement and the condemning others. We are also to avoid sarcasm, cynicism and pessimism. In many ways, our culture encourages this style of relating to others, but for followers of Christ another approach needs to be cultivated.
What may appear to us as deserving our coming down hard on people with whom we may differ or disagree, seeming on the surface as needing reprimanding, may in fact be completely missing the mark.
The images the Book of Sirach uses are good benchmarks for our dealings with others. That is, the potter needs to leave in the kiln what he has fashioned, for the proper length of time. An olive tree does not normally bear fruit for seven years or more. And the fruit that it bears depends on the care it has been given over the course of time.
So too, we cannot automatically jump to conclusions regarding what others say or do, and we need to be able, as Jesus says, to remove the plank lodged in our own eye before attempting to remove the speak in another’s eye.
Saint Paul indicates to the Church of Corinth in today’s second reading that we might even need to wait until death and beyond for good fruit to appear in ourselves and in others. In this regard, Saint Paul says: “Be steadfast and persevering, fully engaged in the work of the Lord. You know that your toil is not in vain when it is done in the Lord.”
These are completely encouraging words in regard to ourselves and to those with whom we live and interact throughout our lives.
Pursuit of the “virtuous life,” as it was called, was something the pagan philosophers of old taught their disciples. In the Christian context, the pursuit of doing good and avoiding evil is likewise a crucial matter in dying to self and living for God and neighbor.
It is never too late to walk along this path. As we approach the holy season of Lent, we are being offered again a golden opportunity to avoid evil, to do good, to rely on the Lord’s grace for speaking and acting in ways that are edifying, literally meaning “building up” the Body of Christ, to which we belong, and to which we want others to be part of as well. Saint Paul expresses the idea this way: “Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor” (Romans 15:2).
Our salvation comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth, and who stooped down to us in the Incarnation in order to draw us and all of humanity into the Kingdom of God. As the psalmist says in Psalm 118(119), verse 32: “I will run the way of your commands; you give freedom to my heart.”
A blessed week and Great Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday this week.
Abbot Christian Leisy, OSB