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Jesus said to his disciples: “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. For people do not pick figs from
thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.” Luke
6:43–44
What a great way to examine the direction of your life! This Gospel
passage gets to the heart of how we can best discern whether or not
we are truly fulfilling the will of God. Oftentimes we may struggle
with knowing clearly if we are doing that which God wants of us.
There are many directions in life that we can be pulled toward and
many goals we can come up with on our own. For that reason, it is
useful from time to time to stop and do an honest inventory of our
lives. When you look at the past year of your life, what do you
see? Specifically, do you see good fruit being born? Such an
examination is helpful to do from time to time. It is useful to
make such an examination not only for the past year but for
different time periods. Perhaps start by looking at the big picture
by looking at all the times in your life that were most fruitful
for the glory of God. From there, try to look at your life decade
by decade, year by year and then even month by month over this past
year. Look for the most blessed moments in your life as well as the
most challenging moments.
When we examine our lives in this way, it’s important to understand
what to look for. For example, there may be moments when all went
well in one way or another and then other times that were painful
and very difficult. What’s important to know, from a divine
perspective, is that just because something “went well” at one
point, or just because something was “painful and very difficult”
at another point in our lives, this doesn’t mean that the former
was the most fruitful for the Kingdom of God or the latter the
least fruitful. In fact, heavy crosses and difficulties in life can
often be the most fruitful times for us, spiritually speaking. Just
look at Jesus’ life. Of course, everything He did was fruitful for
the glory of the Father in Heaven, but we can easily point to the
most painful moment of His life as the most fruitful. His
Crucifixion brought forth the greatest good ever known.
So it is with our lives. The fruitfulness of our lives is not best
discerned by looking at those moments when all was easy, fun,
memorable and the like. Though those may also be graced moments, we
need to look at spiritual fruitfulness from the divine perspective.
We need to look for the moments in our lives, be they easy or
difficult, when God was clearly present and when we made choices
that gave Him the greatest glory.
Reflect, today, upon your life being like a tree that bears
spiritual fruit. What times of your life, decisions you made, or
activities that you were engaged in produced the most virtue in
your life? When was your prayer life the deepest? When was your
charity the strongest? When was your faith and hope the most
evident? Return to those moments, savor them, learn from them and
use them as the best building blocks for the glorious future our
Lord desires for you.
My glorious Lord, Your life bore fruit of infinite value. You
continually chose to fulfill the will of the Father in Heaven, and,
as a result, You lived every virtue to perfection. Help me to
regularly pause in life so as to examine the direction in which I
am going. May I learn from my errors and rejoice in those moments
that were most fruitful for Your Kingdom. I love You, Lord. Help me
to bear the greatest fruit for Your glory. Jesus, I trust in
You.
Image: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia
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