Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Bible Reflections I 23.06.2021 - Wednesday I Indraya Manna
Readings: I - Gen. 15: 1-12; 17-18
II - Mt. 7: 15-20
A TREE AND ITS FRUIT
In today’s Gospel Jesus cautions us not to be deceived by impressing gestures and appealing words of the hypocritical people around us. He also gives us a clue to discover their hypocrisy with the simple metaphor, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree good fruit”. Integrity of the people testify their quality and credibility while disintegrity cause incredibility and bad reputation.
St. Francis of Assisi would say, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words”. Preaching Gospel at all times is nothing but to walk the talk, make it a way of living and that is spirituality. Mere preachers of a religion are not more than a ‘salesperson’; for a salesperson promote a product while the preacher promote a religion.
As Christians with an obligation to preach the gospel, it is easy to speak about God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and benevolence. It is not in preaching alone should people discover us that we are Christians but in our actions as well. Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35).
If we are Christians and God’s people then we have it prove it in our love, mercy and forgiveness to one another as St. John in his epistle exhorts, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1Jh. 4:7). Let us go beyond our likes and dislikes, hate none, love all, forget discords and forgive one another and prove to the world that we are Christians and God’s people fostering hope and joy. We are good trees and cannot but yield only good fruits. May place all our trust in the Lord for His grace to bear only good fruits.
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