A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Ever since Adam and Eve failed to be content with the good trees of the garden of Eden and seized fruit that was not then meant for them they found themselves unable to bring forth good fruit without much that was rotten mixed in. Good fruit would only come occasionally, and with great effort.
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread (see Genesis 3:17-19)
The call on Israel was to be a vineyard dedicated to the Lord, to produce good grapes to be transformed by God himself into the wine of joy. But they found themselves unable to do so, even with all the help God gave them.
What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? (see Isaiah 5:4)
What are we to do when we find ourselves no better, and our own fruit as unreliable as that of our ancestors? What are we to do when we seem to only have stores of evil from which only evil can come? Our hearts, on their own, have no recourse but to rely on this world and to try to fill up their fullness with the passing things of this world. We then desire to bring forth justice but have only tools such as cynicism, power, and slander with which to seek it. Of course such tools only yield thorns and brambles.
Our only hope is to fill our hearts with something else, something that is not subject to the sin that contaminates ourselves and the world. There is one tree only that is truly good. One tree only is there that bears only always the best of fruit. This is the tree of the cross of Christ. Because it itself is rooted in fidelity to God it brings forth fruit regardless of season.
He is like a tree
planted near streams of water,
that yields its fruit in season;
Its leaves never wither;
whatever he does prospers (see Psalm 1:3).
We can choose whether to build on the words of Christ or on other, lesser, merely human words. The words of Christ teach us to make his own yes to his Father our yes. The fruit of his cross genuinely transforms us, makes his own life the foundation for our new life. His fruit makes us fruitful, transforming weeds into wheat, rotten trees into the progeny of the true tree of life itself.
And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing (see Ezekiel 47:12).
Jesus would have us remember that we can bear good fruit consistently only by building on his word. But this is not to be merely theoretical, not simply scholarly pursuit. It is meant to be a connection so profound that we are branches on the vine that is Jesus himself, without whom, he tells us, we can do nothing (see John 15:5).
We are called to remember that, as ever, there are ultimately only two ways. We are free to choose for God and all of the goodness he desires for us but we remain frighteningly free to choose against him. This is why Paul warned against attempts at compromise. We must not imagine that we can partake of the fruit of the cross and the table of sacrifice to idols, whatever those idols might be in our modern world. For our choice of the Lord to avail for us, it must be a wholehearted choice. Union with him, which is the deepest desire of our hearts, is not compatible with anything less.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
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