We need to be good trees bearing good fruit from the goodness of our hearts. How do we respond when we find within ourselves thornbushes and brambles? What do we do when we see evil within our own hearts? We don't simply cut the tree down. Instead we transplant it into better soil where it can grow. We place it in the care of the gardener who can ensure it will be good fruit.
Many trees that bear beautiful and delicious fruit do not begin that way. Often there is a question of whether or not there is evne any hope at all.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of these I am the foremost.
Paul offers us his own life as an example. The Church is replete with examples of repentant sinners from Paul and Augustine to our own time. There are none too lost to be saved. No one is too far gone for hope.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated,
so that in me, as the foremost,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example
for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.
So let's be reassured. In our own times of darkness or when we look at people in the media who seem so far beyond redemption we realize that there is hope for all of us. Even if the fruit is rotten now it may one day be good in the hands of the gardener. Even if it feels like everything is built on flimsy foundations and ready to be washed away in the storm it is not too late to start building on the rock.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
Whether it is soil we need for planting, rock we need on which to build, Jesus offers us the mercy we need.
From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.
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