A Life That Bears Fruit

This is my beloved Son.  We hear those words in the Gospel from God, the Father.  In the first reading is also about a beloved Son, Abraham’s beloved son, Isaac.  Abraham is hoping that this long, long experience of sterility is changed now, that his life will be fruitful, in his son, Isaac, and then all of us, there is a desire that our life be fruitful, not sterile.  But oftentimes, it seems that desire is very disappointed, even heartbreaks. And so I think it’s worth spending time with this passage we have today about Abraham.  It’s one of the most powerful, momentous events and all the lead up to the coming of Jesus, so it’s worth coming back to.  Remembering the situation that Abraham and his wife, Sarah have been unable to have children.  And so now they’re well past the age, Abraham is 75 years old, when this mysterious promise, call of God comes.  But it’s many, many years of continuing barrenness, with no sign of God’s promise until finally, when Abraham is 100 years old, his son, Isaac is miraculously born of Sarah.  And then later, this beloved Son, finally, that God has given him, comes this terrifying request of God asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  And so both Abraham’s trial of sterility and this new trial of the sacrifice, involves his hope for fruitfulness, for having a descendant, having a meaningful life, a life which leaves a legacy.  Let’s look at a few key lessons from this passage. The first is that God wants all of us to have the joy of a fruitful life.  From the very beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, He said, “Be fruitful, and multiply.”  Be fruitful.  And Jesus, the night at the Last Supper, the night before he died, at that very solemn moment, His last moment of intimacy with His apostles, comes back to reflect and teach about fruitfulness.  This is a very important moment for Jesus and it’s a sign of how important fruitfulness is for Him.  Remember, He gives the parable about the vine and the branches.  And  He says, “the Father wants us to bear much fruit”, not just bear fruit, but be very fruitful.  So God wants you to be fruitful, very fruitful.  But what is this fruitfulness mean?  Is he talking only about natural birth?  Well, then Jesus Himself would not be a good example because, of course, Jesus didn’t have any children naturally.  But there’s a sign in the words of Jesus again, at the Last Supper, He says, “I chose you and appointed you, so that you should go and bear fruit.”   So He called us to bear fruit.  Then he says that your fruit should abide, that your fruit should last.  Last, how long?  How long should the fruit last?  Forever.  Jesus wants us to have a life which bears fruit which lasts forever, for all eternity, beyond all human limits.  He wants to give Abraham not less, but much more than Abraham was even hoping for.  He wants to give him an eternal fruitfulness of fruitfulness, which will only be fully evident after this short time here on earth.  So now a key question.  Where does that fruitfulness come from?  If we’re called to be very fruitful, eternally fruitful, where does that come from?   And Abraham’s sterility, Abraham and Sarah’s sterility over that time, is a sign that it doesn’t come from natural abilities.  It can only come from God.  And that’s the key point of this whole reflection this morning, that this fruitfulness that God wants us to bear only comes from union with God.  And again, returning to Jesus at the Last Supper says, “abide in me, as I in You.   As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine.  Neither can you unless you abide in Me.”   Neither can you bear fruit, eternal fruit, unless you abide, unless you are united to Me, Jesus says.  And so in this initial event of Abraham, when God intervenes, sends His angel to stop Abraham, at the last moment from sacrificing His son, what is this, He says, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to Him.  For I know that you fear God, saying that you have not withheld your son, your only begotten son from Me.”   So God revealed that He doesn’t want Abraham to sacrifice his son.  And you know, we have to remember that was a common practice in the pagan peoples around them, to sacrifice their children, to their to idols, and God said he doesn’t want the sacrifice of children.  But what He does want is to be loved, and obeyed, above all, but God first.  And so the key point is this union comes, this fruitfulness of our life, comes from union with God.   As Jesus says, again, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, bears much fruit.”   That’s the critical phrase, because listen to what Jesus is saying, He’s saying that the only condition to bear much fruit, there’s only one condition and it’s to abide in Him.  Everything else can happen in our life.  If we abide in Him, our life will have eternal fruitfulness.  How do we know?   Because Jesus Himself says, “He who abides in Me”, he it is that bears much fruit.  The one and only condition for eternal fruitfulness is remaining in Jesus.  And that’s a very hopeful message.  When we experienced so many trials, and so many problems and so many disappointments and so many disasters in our life that seem to destroy the hope for fruitfulness.  The one condition for eternal fruitfulness is to abide in Jesus to remain in Him.   And the mystery is that the very sacrifices and trials which seem to destroy our fruitfulness are often what are leading us to a union with God, which will be the source of divine fruitfulness in our lives.   That’s what the event of Abraham is about, God teaching him that his fruitfulness will come precisely through the trials, which lead him to faith and obedience to God.  So the letter to the Hebrews reflected on this passage, it’s talking about the importance of faith by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.   So what is the key here, what permitted Abraham to do this was his faith.   When he was tested, he offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises, was ready to offer up his only begotten son, it didn’t make any sense.   God had given him the son after so much suffering.   And now God seemed to be taking his son away.  It didn’t make any sense.  Abraham didn’t try to figure it out.   He trusted, this extreme trust of Abraham in God and he had received the promises was ready to offer up his only begotten Son of whom it was said, through Isaak shall your descendants be named.  He considered that God was able to raise men, even from the dead.  Hence he did receive him back and this was a symbol.  So Abraham was hoping against hope, believing something that had never happened, that God could bring his son back from the dead, greater than the power of death.  And here Abraham is preparing, it says this was a symbol, a sign of the resurrection of Jesus to come.  So Abraham, it’s Abraham’s trial, that sacrifice, leads Abraham to a whole new intensity of union with God, through his faith, his obedience, his hope, his love for God.  This is the moment that brings about the solemn covenant oath that God now swears, it’s not just a promise, it’s now a solemn covenant oath, that God is swearing.  He says, by Myself, I swear, says the LORD, “because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only begotten Son, I will indeed Bless you.  And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the seashore.  And your descendant shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendant shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed My voice.”  Because this great fruitfulness comes because you have obeyed My voice.  And so the very sacrifice which seemed to destroy Abraham’s hope for fruitfulness, by uniting him to God, and faith, and obedience and hope and love, opens Abraham up to a divine fruitfulness.  So this leads us to an even deeper dimension of Abraham’s sacrifice.  As they’re on this road, and you can imagine it’s a three-day journey, they’re going to Mariah, which is where Jerusalem is, the future side of Jerusalem.   At one point, Isaak says, Father, here is the fire in the wood.  But where is the lamb for sacrifice?   And imagine Abraham, hearing his son asked that question, where is the lamb for sacrifice?  And Abraham says, “My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.”  God Himself will provide the lamb.   It happens that they later discover a ram there, that they offer instead of Isaac, but there’s a much deeper meaning.  God Himself will provide the lamb of sacrifice.  God will provide His beloved Son, what He did not ask Abraham to complete, He will complete, offering His beloved Son, the Lamb of God, the lamb of sacrifice for us.  The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which seems to be death, but which leads to infinite life for all who respond.  So what’s the key lessons here for us?  God wants us to be infinitely abundantly, eternally fruitful, and that fruitfulness, this divine fruitfulness comes from Him not from our human efforts alone, but from our union with Him.  And the very trials and sacrifices, that like for Abraham can seem to destroy our hope for a fruitful life.  If we respond with faith, with trust, with abandoning ourselves to God, by uniting us more deeply to God, they become the path to eternal divine fruitfulness.  And so it’s a great message of hope.  No matter what our ages, no matter where we are in life, no matter what happened in our life, God wants us to be fruitful.  And if we trust Him, if we obey Him, our life, for all eternity will bear fruit .  I think, for example of someone like Saint Therese, who died as a as a nun, as a virgin nun, 24 years old, and her life would have seemed to have not borne very much fruit.  And it was only after her death, that mysteriously many lives were converted, many people became like spiritual children of her.  In many mysterious ways that only become evident in eternity, our lives can bear fruit.  “I chose you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, abide forever.  He who abides in Me, bears much fruit.”  The only condition to bear much fruit is to remain in Jesus.  And so in this Mass, which is the sacrifice of the beloved Son, the Father offering this Mass unites us to the sacrifice here, on this little hillside of Tepeyac unites us, to the Father, offering His beloved Son out of love for us.  And we bring the disappointments, the trials, the sacrifices, the heartbreaks that we experience, and we can unite them in this Mass to the sacrifice of Jesus, so that our life can also bear abundant fruit forever.  Amen