SPIRITUAL FRUITS THROUGH THE WORD

WEDNESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 15:112,17-18; Ps 105:1-4,6-9; Mt 7:15-20

Bearing Spiritual Fruits

Abram was a human being like each of us; he was prone to judge things by his senses and liable to doubt whatever was outside the perception of his senses. We have praised his faith in following the call of God to leave his family and people to a foreign land. In today’s passage, he voiced out his doubts and fears. He needed a sign from God to confirm his faith that what God had promised would be fulfilled. He could not reconcile his advancement in age and the word of God promising him a physical inheritance that he would soon abandon and go to his grave. Yahweh knew his fears and doubts; he therefore encouraged him. “Have no fear, Abram, I am your shield; your reward will be great.” To this, Abram replied: “My Lord, what do you intend to give me? I go childless. See, you have given me no descendants; some man of my household will be my heir.” Based on this interaction, we know that the promise God made to Abram was not limited to physical benefits but primarily a spiritual promise that extended beyond his physical or mortal life. But because it would be difficult for Abram to understand and appreciate the supernatural nature of the promise made to faith, God propped his faith up by the promised land of Canaan. “He shall not be your heir; your heir shall be of your own flesh and blood.’ Then taking him outside he said, ‘Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can. Such will be your descendants’ he told him.” Thus, God promised him his son Isaac as a temporal fulfilment of an heir to help him inherit the land en route to the heir that would help him inherit God.

The interaction between God and Abram also reveals his fatherly concern and care for our weaknesses. He uses many things to wake us and work up our faculties to bring us to the level of faith required to receive the reward and bear spiritual fruits. God used the stars to wake up Abram’s imagination needed to facilitate his faith. Another support he provided for Abram was the physical covenant ceremony that took place. God used a typical contract ceremony well known to Abram to strengthen his faith. “‘My Lord,’ Abram replied ‘how am I to know that I shall inherit it? He said to him, ‘Get me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.’” God went through the ceremony with Abram to support his weak faith, and not that God needed the ceremony, for God’s word is a covenant, being God himself. We do not need ceremony to believe in God if we understand who God is. Because we lack the knowledge of his essence, he supports our faith with so many ceremonies and physical signs, as we can see with Abram. The word he spoke to Abram is a covenant that is already spiritually fulfilled but will come to pass physically in its time for the faithful. The promise takes concrete form based on our faith. Thus, the Psalmist states: “He remembers his covenant forever, his promise for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac.”

The word of God is a spiritual seed God sows in human hearts, causing us to sprout in spiritual life and bear fruits. Without faith in God, it is impossible to carry the word of God or bear spiritual fruit through it. Hence, spiritual life is possible only through faith in the word of God. To proclaim it without faith in our hearts is to peddle the word like a trader selling fake goods. Our Lord warns us to beware of false prophets. “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits.” The first demonstration of our encounter with God is our behaviour. Our lives must show we have taken his words to heart by modifying our lives to reflect the truth it contains. Because our hearts are actual temples of the word of God, they produce spiritual or heavenly fruits when we house the word of God. But the absence of these godly fruits demonstrates the absence of God, who lives in our hearts by his words. Thus, God’s interaction with Abram determined the commencement of the incarnation of the Word of God among men. In other words, Abram’s faith, which is a gift of God, commenced the Incarnation of the Son of God among us, by which Abram was to inherit God. Abram was unaware that this spiritual aspect of the fulfilment of God’s promise to him already commenced. Faith makes us become like God. “A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bears good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire.”

Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.