Suppose you visit someone and find that their home is immaculately kept. All the kitchen appliances look brand new and polished. The refrigerator is even “magnet free.” Then you accidentally open the refrigerator to be greeted by a horrible odor coming from the rotting and mildewed food inside. I’m sure the hosts would be horrified when you opened the door.
Jesus talks about how to open the “refrigerator door” of our hearts (Luke 6:39-45).
“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 thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.”
Common sense. If I want to know whether an apple tree is healthy, I reach out and try one of its apples. If I want a fig, I do not go to a rose bush to get it. And I don’t go to the bushes in my back yard to find a cluster of grapes. Tasting fruit opens the door for us to see whether a tree is good or rotten and whether a bush is a grapevine or something else.
So what does this have to do with religion? How do we open the door and see what’s inside a human being? Let’s turn to our first reading to find out (Sirach 27:4-7).
“When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree show the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.”
The secret is out! The speech that comes out of our mouth is the door into the contents of our “refrigerator.” Grain husks appear after the sieve is shaken. The furnace tests the quality of his material. So, speech is the “shaking of the sieve” and tribulation is the furnace of the heart. It is easy to speak kind words when everything goes our way, but when things fall apart, what comes out of our mouths then? Trials open our “refrigerator doors” to let us know what’s inside our hearts.
Sirach concludes with:
“Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.”
And Jesus concludes with:
“…for from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
Sounds like it’s time for us to start monitoring the words that come out of our mouths, especially during a time of tribulation, otherwise we will be keeping the refrigerator door closed. In the end we are judged not by what we look like on the outside but what kind of “food” is inside the refrigerator of our hearts.
When we realize what our heart is full of, it is time to take action. Only God can turn the rotten into good. It is when we let Jesus come into our hearts and take over our lives that the heart will begin to overflow with the presence of God. It is not within our own capacity to change our hearts, no matter how hard we try. We humbly admit our powerlessness, try to be honest with ourselves, and let Jesus do the saving work inside our hearts. We cannot produce healthy grapes until we accept Jesus’ invitation to be grafted onto the one True Vine. This is a priority. We do not have the luxury of postponing the most important work in our lives. It is not for us to know the day or time when God will decide to open up the door of our refrigerators.
