Parishable Items

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

The quality of a tree is known by the quality of the fruits borne by the tree. This literally means that the tree should not be judged by its appearance but by the fruit which is generated by it. The proverb also can be stated…

As is the king so are his subjects.
As is the mother so is the daughter.

St. Monica was born in a Christian family, she married a pagan man. Her marriage was blessed with three children. The oldest and most famous was Augustine. Her husband was not a model husband yet Monica prayed ceaselessly for his conversion. After much prayer her husband accepted baptism but he died within a year. Her son Augustine was a constant concern. Augustine followed the example of his father. He refused to accept baptism for many years, Monica prayed, fasted and cried silently for Augustine’s conversion, God was listening. He heard and finally answered these prayers of this faithful mother. Augustine left his sinful ways, accepted baptism from St. Ambrose of Milan. After his baptism he became good Christian and eventually bishop of Hippo. He was one of the greatest minds of the early Christian church, a theologian whose ideas forever influenced the Catholic Church. St. Monica died shortly after at the age of 55, secure in the knowledge that her son had responded God’s call. Her work on earth was finished. She was a good tree that produced good fruit.

If we want to judge a person we have to judge them not by their speech but by their actions in times of adversity. There is a story in the bible in which two women with a small baby came to King Solomon and said that this baby was their child. King Solomon could not determine who the real mother was so he said that he would cut the child into two giving them each one half. The real mother opposed it and said that she does not want to kill the child because the real mother truly loved the child. So even if King Solomon cannot choose the real mother he made use of the true inner quality of a mother to resolve the problem. So if we want to judge a person, we should do it from their actions.

In today’s gospel, Jesus also teaches us that the quality of our heart determines the quality of our words and actions. He says, “A good person, out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, while an evil person, out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” As Christians, if we live according to the good news, our actions and words would be guided by it. Consequently, it will affect others positively. On the contrary, if we fill our hearts with evil, our words and actions would be filled with nothingness. Are our words uplifting or tearing down others? Jesus describes the heart as one that either produces fruit that is good or fruit that is evil. What kind of fruit is growing in the tree of our heart? Bearing good fruit of love for one another is needed more now than ever before in this world. Evil and hatred sits at the forefront of the world, but God is calling us Christians to be “good fruit trees” that bears good fruit that can only be identified by our character from the words we speak. If we are bearing good fruit, the results will be productivity for the kingdom of God in word and deed. Jesus observes that good trees bear good fruit. When we produce abundant good fruit, then God is glorified. We understands that we have been created by God for fruitfulness.

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Victor Feltes

Back in your school days, did you ever have a teacher whom you really liked teaching you a subject you would not have otherwise cared about? The winsome way your teacher presented the material, and your personal respect and affection for her or him, motivated you to learn. Even back then, you recognized that your best teachers were not there to control or manipulate you, to make you obey just so they could collect a paycheck. You knew they wanted to give to you a good gift: knowledge, for the improvement of your life. You behaved better in their classrooms and gave your best effort in their classes because you knew they cared about you and willed your good. This common experience of excellent teachers helping students absorb lessons they would have otherwise rejected contains lessons for how we ought to fraternally correct one another.

But are Christians supposed to correct the sins of others? You may recall last week’s reading from St. Luke’s Gospel where Jesus said: “Stop judging and you will not be judged.” From this one might conclude we should never correct anybody; for how could we ever correct anyone without judging something they did as wrong? (Among some people today, “Don’t judge” is the only fragment of the Gospels they ever quote.) Yet, Jesus declares in a later chapter of this very same Gospel of Luke: “If your brother sins, rebuke him…” What is going going on here?

The judgement of human souls properly belongs to God, who alone peers into hearts and minds with perfect clarity, justice, and mercy. Yet Christians are called to help others see their errors and change their ways when the actions they are doing are wrong. This is part of being our “brother’s keeper,” to have care and concern for another’s soul. As St. James writes in New Testament letter: “My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone bring him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” Even Jesus’ parable today states that the purpose of removing the beam from your eye is so “you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” That’s an image of fraternal correction; helping remove a harmful impediment so another may see more clearly and live more fully.

If you required eye surgery, in what manner would you want the procedure performed on you? I would want someone to do mine calmly, skillfully, as painlessly as possible while accomplishing what must be done, and in a sterile environment. Likewise, when you correct someone, do it calmly and if possible in a private place in order to minimize their embarrassment. Approach the encounter with prayer so that you may cooperate with God’s grace and choose words which are as firm as is necessary and as gentle as possible. Your critique may be hard for the other person to swallow so perhaps serve it to them inside of a “Compliment Sandwich.” First, express something true and admirable about them, then share your correction, and close with another personal praise or by affirming your friendship. It is much easier to accept correction from a friend who sees the good in you, than from a stranger who does not. Or, in lieu of a face-to-face interaction, sometimes a thoughtfully-written, signed letter can be a good approach. In any case, if we are going to correct another about something we need to be walking-the-walk ourselves, lest we undermine our own words by our poor example.

Jesus’ parable today highlights a common human problem: we more readily see faults in others than see them in ourselves. We note the splinter in our neighbor’s eye but do not perceive the wooden beam in our own. There are multiple psychological reasons for this, so we must act against our bias towards self-blindness to see ourselves truly, in order that we may grow. A passage from the Book of Proverbs teaches that if you correct a fool he will hate you, but if you correct a wise man he will love you for it. So when someone corrects you, receive the message gracefully. Even if they are only half-right, take that half to heart. And if they are totally off base, let their criticism roll off your back without holding a grudge.

Remember that the person over whom you have the greatest control, and whom you have the greatest responsibility to convert, is yourself. In your prayers this Lent, which begins this Wednesday, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your true self to you. Seeing yourself through the loving eyes of our Lord is likely to both challenge and console to you in surprising ways. Jesus says, “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.” Let Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher, instruct you. He cares about you, has important knowledge to share, and desires your glory to be like his own.