8th Sunday in Ordinary Time     Lk 6:39–45   Year "C"
          The Discipline of the Disciple

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit” (Lk 6:43–44). We all want to see fruit in our lives. We all want to live healthier, to be better husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and to do the right thing, even when it’s hard. What does it take to produce good fruit? If we want to see this good fruit in our lives, we have to choose to choose; we have to start to live intentionally as disciples of Jesus.

Good fruit requires the cultivation of a good tree. The cultivation of a good tree includes good water, good soil, proper pruning, appropriate sunlight, and the rest. The good fruit of a good human being is virtue (both acquired and infused). And, like a good tree, a good human must be cultivated. He must be cultivated by the proper disciplines of mortification and of prayer.

In the disciplines of mortification and prayer, the human person is trained in discipleship. “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher” (Lk 6:40). This point is of critical importance. The fruit to be borne by man is not his own fruit, per se. It is the fruit of a disciple who has become like his Teacher, through intimate communion with his Teacher. He must not think that the fruit is his own, nor that the power to bear it comes from himself. The Christian is not Pelagian. At the same time, he must put in the work of training. He must go, so to speak, to the spiritual gym of mortification and of prayer. As the Christian is not Pelagian, he is also not Quietist.

Nonetheless, the training of a disciple is something like the growing of plants. Our discipline includes (1) the cultivation of good soil, so to speak, in mortification and (2) extending our roots to receive the living water of the Holy Spirit available to us in prayer.

Jesus is clear in another place about the importance of good soil. “A sower went out to sow his seed. . . . And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold. . . . The seed is the word of God. . . . And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Lk 8:5, 8, 11–12, 15; emphasis added). Thus the mortifications required for a disciple include (1) hearing the word, (2) holding it fast, and (3) bring forth fruit in patience.

Therefore, we must ensure that we hear the word. When we come to Mass, are we sufficiently recollected so that we can truly hear? Or, if we are in a state in life where we are easily distracted (such as if we have small children who sometimes require our attention during Mass), do we read the readings ahead of time so that we are as prepared as we can be to receive the word of God?

Next, we must hold fast to the word. Could we re-read the readings on Monday? Could we jot down what stands out to us from the readings, the liturgical texts, or the homily, and revisit it throughout the week (maybe even by taping a sticky note to the back of our cell phones)? If we allow the roots of the Word to sink deeply into us, they can break even through our stony hearts. Think of any plant — even the small ones — given time and nutrition they break through even bricks and stone in their growth.

Finally, we must bring forth fruit in patience or, to translate the Greek hypomonē in another way, in fortitude. Can we make a small resolution each week to do better — e.g., an extra act of kindness for your spouse one week, a bit of fasting another week, or extra time with your kids another week?

Cultivating the soil of our souls in these ways will put us on our way to being the good, fruit-bearing tree — the good fruit-bearing disciple — whom Jesus calls us to be. However, no matter how rich our soil is, we will be sterile if not nourished by the living water of prayer. To truly bear fruit we must, as Pope Benedict writes, maintain living contact with the word of God and thereby spending our lives in dialogue with Him. The Holy Father points us to the example of St. Joseph who, by this meditation on the word of God — simply reading and pondering and praying — “lives the law as Gospel. He seeks the path that brings law and love into unity. And so he is inwardly prepared for the new, unexpected and humanly speaking incredible news that comes to him from God.”¹

May we too, as true disciples — prepared by mortification and nourished by prayer — live the law in such a way that the fruit of authentic love is borne in our lives. May we heed the words of St. Paul and, due to God’s grace flowing through our prayer and mortification, never labour in vain.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58).