Homily for Easter 5 - May 2, 2021

 

Homily for Easter 5

May 2, 2021

Three Fruits, One Vine

 

            Later this afternoon, the confirmation candidates in our parish will be taking their Confirmation test. I have a pretty vested interest in their success, as I have taught them this past year. If they don’t pass, that would mean that I didn’t do my job very well!

            Everyone wants to see the fruits of their labors. Doctors want to see their patients get better; lawyers want to win their cases; teachers want their students to learn things; parents want their kids to grow up and be successful. It is often tough to labor as a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a parent – these are jobs that are difficult, time-consuming, exhausting - involving blood, sweat, and tears, as the proverbial saying goes. It is only natural that if we make a huge effort at something, we want to see its fruit.

            Jesus wants His Sacrifice to bear fruit, as well! He gave everything on the Cross – every drop of His blood, every breath in His lungs, every ounce of Love in His Sacred Heart – and He, too, does not want His sacrifice to be without fruit. The reward that He desires is souls. We are the fruit of His passion and death. But what does that mean? Practically speaking, I want to mention three types of spiritual fruit that God expects us to bear.

            First, virtue. We must be seeking to grow in every virtue: patience, kindness, humility, generosity, self-sacrifice, chastity, courage. Virtues make us like Christ, Who perfectly lived every virtue. Every parent delights when their children become like them – if a dad is an athlete, he usually wants his sons to follow in his footsteps. If a mother is a musician, she might delight if one of her kids also takes up an instrument. In the same way, Jesus rejoices when we become like Him through virtue – and this is a great spiritual fruit that the Lord expects us to bear.

            Have you heard of the recent saint canonized last month by Pope Francis, named St. Margaret of Castillo? Her life could have been a tragedy in so many ways – she was born with so many disfiguring disabilities that her parents told everyone that she had died in childbirth, and they hid young Margaret away from the world. When she was a child, they bricked up a small room in their house, trapping young Margaret inside – her only contact with the outside world was through a small slit where they would pass food into her cell. But the local parish priest began to bring her Communion and teach her about God, and she quickly advanced in learning and love for God. When Margaret was 19, her parents took her to a shrine where they heard that healings were happening…but when Margaret wasn’t healed, her parents abandoned her there, and she became a beggar…but one with an uncommon love for God and neighbor. She began sharing her food with her fellow poor, and would spend all day and night in prayer. She gathered children around her and taught them catechism lessons. The townspeople recognized her kindness, patience, gentleness and mercy, and when she died, they insisted that she be buried inside the parish church, which is an honor usually only given to noblemen. It was her virtue that redeemed her otherwise tragic life – her life, although full of suffering, bore incredible fruit for God, because of her virtue.

            A second fruit God expects us to bear is good works. Very few people know that during the mid-1800s, there was a tremendous outpouring of hatred and prejudice in America against Catholic nuns. Nuns all over the country were spat upon, slanderous books were written about them, and it even got so bad that a Protestant group in Boston burned down a convent. But despite such persecution, the nuns responded by taking care of those most needy. During the Civil War, many nuns opened their convent doors to wounded soldiers, to the poor, and anyone in need. Their good deeds so changed the nation’s attitude toward them that an imprisoned Union soldier wrote to the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy: “I am not of your Church, and have always been taught to believe it to be nothing but evil. However, actions speak louder than words, and I am free to admit, if Christianity does exist on this earth, it has some of the closest followers in the ladies of your Order.” It was good works that brought honor and dignity to the Catholic Church in America – it is good works that bring fruitfulness to Christ’s sacrifice.

            Finally, a third fruit is bringing souls to Christ. When I was ordained, the priest who vested me leaned in close as he was placing the stole around my neck and whispered, “Bring thousands of souls to Heaven with you.” I’ve never forgotten it – and we should all ask, “Who am I bringing to Heaven with me?” Our kids? Our coworkers? Our neighbors? I don’t want to show up to Heaven empty-handed, but hopefully with many souls I can present to the Lord as the fruit of His labor through me.

            And here is the key – all of this fruit (virtues, good works, bringing souls to Christ) is only possible through His grace in us. Jesus makes it clear in the Gospel that “without Him we can do nothing.” Not “some things”, not “a few things”…nothing. It is our intimate union with Christ through prayer that allows us to do anything good. A plant cannot bear fruit if it is not watered; likewise, a soul cannot bear fruit if it does not drink deeply from the Living Water of Christ.

            Some of us say we are too busy to have a serious prayer life. To this, St. Francis de Sales said: “Always pray for a half-hour a day, unless you are busy. Then you need to pray for an hour a day.” We can try to grow in virtue or do good works on our own – striving, struggling, laboring – when God wants us to bear fruit easily and quickly through prayer!

            One day, Pope John Paul II’s secretary got a message about some world tragedy and needed to inform the Pope immediately, even though it was 3am. The secretary went to the Pope’s bedroom…and he wasn’t in bed. So he started searching…the chapel, the kitchen, the Pope’s office, everywhere…and he couldn’t find him! Now absolutely terrified that he lost the pope, the secretary went back and searched everywhere again…and found the Pope lying face-down on the floor of his chapel, completely absorbed in prayer, in the middle of the night. With his busy schedule, the Pope knew how vital it was to keep that intimate communion with the Lord if his ministry was going to bear any fruit!

            Christ wants His sacrifice on the Cross to bear fruit: the fruit of virtues, of good works, of souls led to Him. We are the branches who will bear this good fruit, only through His grace living in us. Turn to Him in prayer – daily, hourly, moment-by-moment – and then go and bear great fruit for the Kingdom.