My lovely wife Anna, and I are the same age. Years back in grade school we had to “diagram” a sentences. Children today might be learning cursive writing skills but not “diagramming sentences”. Admittedly my wife was better at this than I was. Saint Paul’s epistles drives her nuts. It makes her dizzy to read him and in her mind to diagram what he says. Saint Paul was fervent for God and he believed that the followers of “the Way” were blasphemers and should be obliterated from the face of the earth. He was there when the first martyr Saint Stephen was stoned to death. He knew the commandments and knew his scripture.
His tune changed on the way to Damascus when he had an encounter with the Risen Lord. His eyes were open and all his study of the Old Testament came to perspective. He realized that all the scripture from the past was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ who he persecuted. Saint Paul studied scripture. The words of God were part of the foundations of his very being.
Most non-Catholics think we do not study scripture but in is obvious from the daily readings that we are very concerned about what God is telling us. Sometimes I have to search very hard to connect all the readings of a single day into one message and sometimes I do not succeed. Today they connect like a well-worn shoe. From all the hurricanes of the past couple of weeks it is clear that storms in life are always there. We prepare our homes as best we can and still our best efforts fail.
Our souls are our real houses for eternity. These earthly homes and possessions can float away but are souls are here to stay. If we build a home on a strong foundation our souls will produce good fruit. That ties into the readings very well. One thing I never noticed before now was that good fruit needs to be given away or it too will rot.
Luke 6: 43-45 “* “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 thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
I sometimes knowingly and at other times unknowingly “write people off” as bad fruit. Saint Paul, my churches patron saint, could have been one of those people. He would have been good fruit to the Scribes and Pharisees but bad to Christians like Ananias who was not so sure of his goodness (Acts 9:13).
1 Timothy 1:15-16 “This saying is trustworthy* and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.”
If you are alive right now, you too will be mercifully treated by Jesus, also. Remember John 3: 16-18. Never give up that hope because that is exactly what the Devil wants us to do.
We all have the opportunity to change the fruit we produce. Our soul’s foundation can be changed and the fruit we produce can be good. Saint Paul changed his life around and so can you. Give your fruit to the world so they can receive Jesus’s mercy as well.
God Bless You
Bob Burford
Readings: 1 Timothy 1:15-17; Psalm 113: 1B-2, 3-4, 5 & 6-7; Luke 6: 43-49
