Bear Fruits of Goodness

   

Third Sunday of Lent

23 March 2025

 

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

 

Reflection

By: Anabelle P. Balla

 

I have started writing my autobiography and it is challenging to make quick progress with so many events to include. I tried organizing my thoughts based on important people in my life, but the list kept growing. I also attempted to break it into short stories, which resulted in a lot of content to cover. My life has been full of experiences, never boring.

However, beyond the stories and individuals, I reflect on my contributions and impact. Am I achieving my purpose and making a positive difference?

I realized that the measure of a fruitful life goes beyond tangible achievements. It is found in the love I share, the kindness I extend, and the positive impact I have on those around me. It's the comforting words I offer to a friend in need, the lessons I teach my children, and the care I provide to my community. It's not just about the milestones but also the moments of grace, forgiveness, and compassion.

We are meant to live fully, make our lives beautiful and productive, and nurture God's creations with love. With God, we can bear fruits of goodness that can help make this world a better place to live.

Prayer

Father, may the story of my life inspire those around me to cultivate their own fruitful lives, rooted in faith, love, and service. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Kind and Merciful God

 

 Third Sunday of Lent

20 March 2022

 

First Reading: EX 3:1-8a, 13-15

Responsorial Psalm: PS 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11

Second Reading: 1 COR 10:1-6, 10-12

Gospel: LK 13:1-9

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

Truth be told: many of us believe that the good that we experience, we deserve. The tendency can be stronger for Christians. Since we strive to stay close to the Lord in how we live, likely it is for us to think: "Ah, I am reaping all these good fruits because I have kept good with the Lord." God certainly likes to bless His faithful. It is a delight for Him to see us walk in His leading; but there is something unchristian with this thinking. As easy it is to believe that we deserve what we enjoy because we have been good, it is just as easy to hold those with their misfortune deserving of their predicament. In our minds, they must have been done something wrong to be meted those punishments. We worship a just God, do we not? But what will happen when we come across our own mishaps? We may ruminate repeatedly: "I have tried my best to be a good Christian. Why do I still have trouble?" A conundrum like this could further make us question: "Have I been bad? Do I worship a just God? How does God's justice work?"

"Thank God", I saw from a Facebook post. It was a reference to Psalm 130:3 For–"If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" If only we realize how easy it could be for anyone to sin, perhaps no one will want to claim first in God's questioning. "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28); "anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment; [...] anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca,' is answerable to the court; and anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell" (Matthew 5:22). If these simple occurrences already count as sins, there can be more that we are guilty of without our knowing. Sinful though we are, why then are we still blessed? First, we must realize that it is not our works that win God's favor: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not—by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). If it is not our works that determine who gets grace, it follows that it is not our righteousness that predicts who receives God's goodwill; it is, instead, God's generosity: "[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). If God blesses both the good and the wicked, can we ever be sure that His justice would stay as clear cut as we expect? Not so, at least not in the way we understand justice. For the way we hold justice is limited—even juvenile compared to God's definition of justice. Whom we deem guilty can well differ from the opinion of One who can see everything clearly. God is the One who sees and knows it all—He is omniscient; He is ever-present and powerful—He is omnipotent. If our senses can notice only so many objects and our minds can store and interpret only so much information, how trusting can we be of our judgment? How confident can we be to say who is with sin? And how confident can we be that we are free of guilt? "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone..." (John 8:7).

We must not make of ourselves as though spotless slates, for all do sin, and there only need beheld one thing we treasure dearly to reveal: we can all be impassioned towards evil. Everyone has as much propensity to sin as those they hold despicable, and between persons, the sight of one's evil does not make anyone a perfect judge, for in different circumstances who is judge, who is victim, who is perpetrator - these would change. The only thing that differentiates us from each other is our buffer, whatever it could be: conscience, fear of God, the fallout with our well-meaning loved ones, the prospect of what we would lose and whom else we would hurt, and many more. All sin under the eyes of God who sees it all, and chance only needs to catch us open to determine who gets convicted, but it remains—all sin whether in broad daylight or behind closed doors; and the Good News is this: we are not without forgiveness; not without a Savior. Jesus Christ is the Name by which we will be saved. Furthermore, the teachings of the Church would reveal to us an innateness to our person that is defined not ultimately by our concupiscence—our very tendency to sin—but by our being made in the Image and Likeness of God. Therefore,  we discover that it is not our sins that constitute our character. If anything, they detract us from becoming our true selves in God.

God's justice is so good to understand these dynamics of ours that I curiously pose, if I may, that the reason we are handed what is right and what is evil is to precisely establish the basic condition by which we can all live in peace; but God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways, higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9); God's work goes way beyond assigning accountability. If God knows very well that everyone falls short and who is guilty and greatly predicted by who is seen faltering for the time, we will understand why He stresses to the fore the three most universal values: faith, hope, and the greatest of these—love (1 Corinthians 13). Love is the virtue that binds everyone together in fraternal communion. God, knowing our frailties and how encumbering they can be, wants us to focus instead on the remedies: the virtue-solutions! Love—its true and divinely guided expression—is enough to encompass every good we should do to each other, including every evil we should withdraw from, for "love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law"  (Romans 13:10). The way to this love starts with the first step: repentance of our own wrongdoings. It is repentance that makes possible a more transformative reconciliation with the Lord and others. The Gospel for today (Luke 13:1-9) emphasizes the purpose of this repentance: so we do not perish at the appointed time. We know that we invoke the right spirit to repentance when we are driven not exclusively by the urge to call out others on their wrongs, but when we make good of ourselves as good we intend to make of others.

The parable that Jesus told about the fig tree that would not bear fruit can be likened to us in times when we are fruitless or unproductive. The work of good can take years of tedious struggling and would not stop until one's final breath, and there could be great compulsion to stop all efforts when there are no good results. Thankfully, as patient Jesus is, He advises us to be patient with ourselves and others; for in time, we may finally produce the good fruit we seek. Until then, we can always ask the Lord for help, and we will find no better companion than Him. Along these lines, I remember a quote from Alexander Den Heijer: "When a flower does not bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower." This quote reminds us not to discount the environment in which we grow. While we could take great care to become "flowers"—or our best state so to speak, we must place as much attention towards our environment and all the factors that compose it, such as the places we frequent, the messages we consume, and most of all, the people we regularly surround ourselves with. Our environment, among other things we put into our nature, can be just as crucial to our spiritual growth and fidelity. Therefore, if there is no better companion than Christ, then we know Who to look for to help us the whole way.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for being our good Father and for all the graces You give us. May You help us know where we are at fault and to acknowledge them genuinely so that as heartfelt our contrition is, so our reconciliation with You and others will be. In our intention to know where we could improve, may we follow Your spirit and rightful instruction so we advise each other not only with the urge to correct, but chiefly with love, communion, forgiveness, and reconciliation. May we follow Your ways in our dealings with You, others, and ourselves. These we ask in Jesus' Most Holy Name, Amen.

 

Second Chances

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Mid'ian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed And Moses said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here am I."

Then he said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites.

Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, `The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Psalm: Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural foo and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

 There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo'am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." And he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, `Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him, `Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Reflection
By Fely Santiago

“Sir, leave it for this year also, I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down”


It’s funny, I said I need to finish today the reflection for March 3. So I prayed to the Holy Spirit, “Lord what to do you want me to reflect on?” and His words just kept pouring in. I had to delete everything I initially wrote for this Third Sunday of Lent. The initial title of my reflection was “Bearing Fruit”. The Lord changed it to "Second Chances", lessons from the fig tree.

The Lord is indeed kind and merciful. He gives us second chances. If we have not been bearing fruit in our relationship with Him, now is the perfect time. In this season of Lent, we can spend more time with Him that we may bear fruits and others will see Jesus in us. Lent offers us a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God. It is a time of GREAT GRACE. Even in our busy world, we can still find time to pray more deeply, repent for all the ungratefulness that we’ve done and failed to do, and to be more generous to those in need. Every waiting time like being caught in the traffic, waiting in line in a grocery or bus stop, is an opportune time to spend moments with the Lord. It just takes an awareness of the presence of the Lord every moment of our lives.

In which areas in our lives have we not been bearing fruit? If we are in the grace of God, we can pray for the nine visible attributes of a true Christian - the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.

In my case, I need to improve in the areas of joy, patience, kindness and self-control. These are my challenges and desires this Lenten season and I cannot do it alone. I need the Holy Spirit to guide me. But I truly believe nothing is impossible with the Lord! He gives me another chance to bear the fruits of joy, patience, kindness, and self-control. So my desire is that God will give me more patience to accept the things I cannot change and out of control, to wait for the right time for things to happen, believing the best is yet to come, to take time and not always be in a hurry, learn to slow down and really enjoy each moment, to be more kind to people and accept their weaknesses, to exercise self-control when things are not in accordance with what I want. And lastly, I pray that I will learn to laugh more often and always find joy in the simple things and in all the blessings that God surrounds me. The moment that I wake up everyday, I am blessed with the gift of life, my family, the beauty of His creation, the gift of friendship, the money that is working for me, the gift of my spiritual community and the many blessings and miracles He gives me everyday! These are all sources of joy that I should always be thankful and joyful about.

How about you? Which areas in your life need bearing fruit? What are the second chances that God is giving you?

May this Lenten season produce a rich harvest in your Christian life. God is GREAT! He gives us second chances to be the person that He wants us to be, to enjoy the abundant life that He gives us.

Prayer

Lord, I know how much You love me. You always give me second chances. Help me to use Your love as a way to persevere in my Lenten intentions. I am weak, but I know with Your help, I can use the small sacrifices in my life to draw closer to You. Be with me in this Lenten journey that I may truly bear all the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-contro.l In Jesus name I pray. Amen.