PRODUCTIVITY IN THE FACE OF EVIL

SATURDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eph 4:7-16; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 13:1-9

Bearing Fruit in the face of Evil

Sad events make us ask questions concerning fate and what it really entails. We have stated that God created the whole universe and orders everything within it for his own good purpose. Does our belief in the divine ordering of things and events on earth exclude negative outcomes or events from the operation of different natures created by God? Certainly not. God created every nature; he also acts through each nature’s operation to realise his good purpose. Unfavourable outcomes from operations of natural things, which we call material evils in distinction from moral evils, are part of divine foreknowledge and ordering of natural events. Hence, the faithful who pray to God for deliverance from evil, moral and material, ask for divine grace to uphold our weak wills, to always choose what is truly good and not seemingly evil. With grace, we act according to the Father’s will as Jesus did during his life on earth. In the same prayer of deliverance, we also ask for grace to guide us away from harm caused by physical and moral failures among creatures.

Our prayer for deliverance from evil does not mean we will never suffer evil, but that we may be strong to suffer any evil the Father allows and remain faithful to God’s will, as Christ was faithful through his passion and death. This gives us a good background to understand our Lord’s response to the news of those Pilate killed. “Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not. I tell you. No; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.” This response covers both moral and material evils. Both are part of God’s means of transforming us into Jesus Christ. Grace we gain from our prayers and cooperation with God helps us fulfil God’s plan of love for us, which brings about our salvation. Confirming this, Paul states in Rom 8:28 that everything works together for the good of those that love God. Divine grace does not remove us from the world and its corruption, from the effects of evil and forces of darkness, but guides us through them unscathed and transformed into Jesus Christ. Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the shadows of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art me.” Deliverance from evil means exactly this in our Lord’s prayer.

Our Lord’s parable paints our mortal existence as a time of spiritual growth in the Lord’s vineyard. We are supposed to make use of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to bear heavenly fruit in the world, for our salvation and that of others. Our distraction from the Lord would cause us to waste the grace God gives us. “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?”” Saint Paul affirms the grace Christ has allotted to us to bear fruit as we go through struggles and challenges. “Each one of us has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it.” Utilisation of the allotted grace keeps us intact and fruitful in the face of moral and physical evils. As we grow into Christ daily, we become better in transforming evil into good to the glory of God. “Then we shall not be children any longer or tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks men play and their cleverness in practising deceit. If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ.” The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ makes us strong and compact like Jerusalem, able to withstand every attack of evil and demons, for we have become the city of God.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart. 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.