8Th Sunday of ordinary time
Next week we begin the season of Lent with the Ashes on Ash Wednesday and we begin our annual journey of repentance and conversion for 2025 as pilgrims of hope. All of us will have many opportunities to strengthen our spiritual lives over the 6 weeks of lent as we ponder what our faith really means to us as individuals and as a community. We also continue our prayers for the health and wellbeing of Pope Francis.
In the First Reading this Sunday we are told that a persons speech reveals their faults and true character. Do not praise someone before hearing them speak as this is the test of men. The Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 91 and we hear that It is good to thank and praise the Lord, whose kindness and faithfulness are constant. We are also told that the righteous flourish and bear fruit, proclaiming God’s justice and reliability to those around them. In our Second Reading we are told that Through Jesus, we have victory over death. Again we are called to be steadfast and devoted to the Lord’s work, knowing all we do is not in vain even though sometimes it might look that way for in the Lord we do not labour in vain.
This Sunday in our Gospel Reading Jesus is coming to the end of what, in Luke, is called the “Sermon on the Plain”. He has instructed his disciples to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, treat others as they would want to be treated, not judge them, etc. Jesus is the wise person teaching the disciples a practical wisdom on how to live their lives as his disciples. Jesus says, in summary, a person’s words and actions will reveal their character. The Gospel tells us There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.’ God’s love is effective, it produces good fruit for the benefit of others. The good we do is the way to spread the faith to others. Jesus sends us to be witnesses to the faith we profess to practice what we preach in all we do and say. Jesus words to us in this weekend’s gospel show his concern for the integrity and quality of our lives. We cannot, he says, teach others if we ourselves are not witnesses to what we teach. There are many people out there who were witnesses to the truth of the gospel who have turned away and betrayed the truth and become rotten fruit. Lent is the time to renew our selves in terms of faith so that we are able to move forward in the certain knowledge and hope of being true witnesses to the faith. Lent is all about moving forward in a spirit of conversion and prayerful return the spirit of metanoia.
During Lent we are provided with many opportunities for spiritual renewal but that will be for the weeks ahead. But for now let us stop and reflect on the good we do for others and how that becomes a way of bringing the faith to the people where they are. As we continue our journey as pilgrims of hope we remember that God’s love is effective, and it produces good fruit for the benefit of others and we are called to show gods love through all we do and say for one another.
Fullerton T 