February 25, 2024
Like Abraham, we may feel bitter sadness at the lack of fruit in our lives. But God wants your life to bear abundant fruit. How can it be?
Key Points
- The deep human desire to leave a legacy, to be fruitful.
- What kind of fruit?
- Where does this fruitfulness come from?
- What about all our disappointments?
- How can we bear abundant fruit?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
The Bible often speaks of fruitfulness, a life that is fruitful. And in all of us there’s a deep desire to have a life that is fruitful. Sometimes people speak of leaving a legacy or making a lasting difference in our world. And so today we have the first reading from Abraham, that first reading in these weeks of Lent are taking us through the major stages of the Old Testament. And so today we have Abraham, one of the greatest moments, when the reading we have today brings us back to one of the greatest moments in the Old Testament. So we and we often come back to this to this history of Abraham. So remember that Abraham and Sarah were very old, and they hadn’t been able to have any children. And so they’re suffering a lot from that sterility. And then suddenly, God speaks to Abraham and calls him to leave his homeland, his fatherland and begin this mysterious journey with all his family. And God promises Abraham descendants. And then many, many years go by Abraham has this difficult trial of faith. As the years go by, and nothing happens. No response to God’s promise, God’s promises not fulfilled. Until it’s not just it’s finally many years later, when Abraham is 100 years old, that miraculously, Sarah bears him, a son, Issac. And so this is the son that Abraham has received as a promise from the Lord. And then we have that what the reading today’s speaks about, then suddenly, God asked him to sacrifice this only son, in a command that couldn’t make any sense to sacrifice, his one opportunity to finally have bear fruit, they have a descendant. It seemed like God was asking him to sacrifice, the only possibility he had for fruitfulness. And so this topic of fruitfulness involves children, it involves also having a meaningful life. So how can you have a fruitful life? All of us are in different situations, how can each one of us have a fruitful life, because God wants us to have the joy of fruitfulness, God wants all of us to have the joy of a fruitful life, that from the very beginning, in Genesis, the Lord says, Be fruitful and multiply. So from the very beginning, He tells Adam and Eve, be fruitful. So He wants us to be fruitful. He wants to give us fruitfulness, descendants, glory, beyond what we could hope for. But what kind of fruitfulness then does God want to give us? Is that only natural at the fruitfulness of having children. Because we see in Jesus Christ Himself, He didn’t have any natural children. So according to that measure Jesus Himself would not seem to have fruitfulness in life, and obviously, there’s no one who’s had a more fruitful life than Jesus. So it’s not just giving birth, to physically giving birth. But it’s also it’s a deeper meaning of fruitfulness, that giving birth and raising children is part of it, but it’s only part of it. And Jesus gives us a clue about what he’s talking about when He said at the Last Supper to His apostles, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and what that you should go and what? bear fruit. So he said He’s appointed His apostles, and some of them were married, some of them were not married. And so how are they going to bear fruit that what he’s telling them He wants them to bear fruit. And then He also says, and that your fruit should abide that your fruit should last. A fruit that will last. So and last beyond human limits. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago someone like Alexander the Great, whose extraordinary life as a young man I think is already in his 30s when he has to conquer all these nations, but then he died very young. And then right away, his kingdoms began, his whole empire began to be divided right away. And so many human works, which seemed very impressive, don’t last that all. So God wants us to have a fruit that will last. So when God is asking Abraham to do this, it’s not that he’s trying to take away fruitfulness from Abraham. He’s trying to give Abraham more fruitfulness. He wants Abraham to have more fruitfulness not less. It seems like He’s taken away the one, the one opportunity for fruitfulness that Abraham would have. And yet on the contrary, He wants to give Abraham more fruitfulness and abundant fruitfulness. And this is can begin on this earth. But it only reaches its fullness in eternity. Because we often only think of this earth because we’ve never been to Heaven, at least I haven’t, and so probably most of you haven’t either. And so our focus is so much on this earth we almost forget about heaven, forget about eternity. It’s easy to do. But that’s what’s important, a fruitfulness which will last for all eternity. So that in eternity, you will be experiencing this fruitfulness. So where does this where does this fruitfulness come from? This eternal fruitfulness, how can you who are a human, how can you have a life which gives eternal fruitfulness? And a sign of Abraham and Sarah’s sterility, that is a sign. It’s a sign that it was not going to come from their natural abilities. And that’s very important. This eternal fruitfulness doesn’t come from our natural abilities. Just like Abraham and Sarah. There was nothing they could do, by their own abilities to have children. And so it doesn’t come from our natural abilities. It comes from God. As Jesus again says, at the Last Supper, He says, “Abide in Me, and 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.” So he’s saying that this fruitfulness comes from abiding in God. Because it’s a fruitfulness, which comes from God, and that’s the only thing that will last in heaven. Any fruit that is not from God won’t exist in eternity. The only fruitfulness that will last is that which comes from God. And that’s why in this account of Abraham, you’re Abraham’s getting ready to sacrifice his only son, when God’s angel intervenes, and says Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only begotten son from Me. So God doesn’t want the killing the earth because that was a very common pagan practice, very common to sacrifice their own children, to these idols, to these demonic idols. And so God has shown that’s not what He wants. But what He does want. So what does He want? He wants union with Him. That fruitfulness will come from union with God. And so that’s a key point. Where does this fruitfulness, this lasting fruitfulness come from? It comes from union with God. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him. He it is that bears much fruit.” So notice what He’s saying. He’s saying that the only thing necessary to bear fruit for all eternity. There’s just one thing necessary and that is to abide in God. That He says, let me read that again, “I am the vine you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him. He it is that bears much fruit.” That is that anyone who remains in Jesus Christ, no matter what the situation of our life is, no matter how many children we’ve had or haven’t had, no matter how those children have turned out, sometimes it’s differently than maybe we would have expected. But no matter what the situation is, if we abide in Jesus, our life will bear abundant fruit. That’s the one condition for bearing eternal fruit. And so this is open to all of us, and all the different situations that we find ourselves, anyone who remains in Jesus, who abides in Him, it was united to Him, their life will bear much abundant fruit for eternity. The letter to the Hebrews speaking about Abraham says, By faith. So how can we, how can we abide in Jesus? What do we do to abide in Jesus and so this letter to the Hebrews says, By faith. Abraham is a great example of by faith, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, he considered that God was able to raise men, even from the dead, that even if he offered Isaac, if that’s what God was asking him to do, God could raise his son from the dead. And so it’s by faith. It’s by faith that Abraham is united to God. And that faith gives him hope. And that causes Abraham to obey God. And that’s what God says, in the very reading we heard today, when I want to have to God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son, that He promises that He’s going to give him this extreme multitude of descendants. And why does He say He’s going to do that? Because you obeyed my voice. That’s where Abraham’s extreme abundance of descendants comes from. Not because that he was physically more fruitful, then, in fact, he was physically unable to bear children. But he and Sarah, but because he obeyed God, so he remained united to God, like Jesus says, by believing and obeying God. And so that’s the key that’s good, just given us by obeying, by abiding in God and how do we do that? By believing in the Lord and obeying Him. And so the trials and sacrifices and disappointments that we have in our life, right, we all have trials, sacrifices, things that discourage, that disappoint us, things that seem to inhibit our ability to bear fruit, that seem to destroy sometimes, our desire for fruitfulness. But that’s the mystery. That’s what this history of Abraham assures us, that those very things which seem to become what seems to be obstacles, they can actually be used by God to give even greater abundance of fruit. The very thing that same those gotta take away so think of think of Abraham, he wanted to have many children, and he couldn’t have any children. And finally, he had one. So and then the one he had, he was asked to have to sacrifice. But that very thing which seemed like it was going to be the destruction of his desire for fruitfulness, actually became what gave him not just a limited, human, temporary fruitfulness, but a fruitfulness which will be abundant and for all eternity, a divine fruitfulness. And so this is teaching us that our lives can bear fruit, even if we’re not capable humanly, our lives can bear fruit, if we trust in the Lord, and the very things that seem like to destroy our ability to bear fruit, when we can confide them to the Lord, when we obey the Lord through them, they can be the source of a divine fruitfulness because they can be the call to unite ourselves to God in faith, hope and love and obedience to Him. And so the very crosses that we face of disappointment become that which seem to be the obstacles to our fruitfulness, become actually the path to a whole new level of fruitfulness, a divine fruitfulness. And so Jesus Christ, who dies on the cross, which seems to, He is a young man who is not married, so that seems to completely destroy his ability to bear fruit, right? Because obviously, you can’t bear fruit when you’re dead. And yet, actually, the cross is the moment of His greatest fruitfulness that opens the way to the infinite fruitfulness of the sacrifice of Jesus. So there’s a lot of mysteries here. Not a mystery is to, which but which you are living in your own life, and that you are called to. And God wants to share these mysteries with you. And even I think I think of it in a special way for our little Mission of Divine Mercy, because we’re still very little, our consecrated community is very small, we haven’t grown over the years. And so I think a lot of this, this history of Abraham, Abraham had to go through this long, many, many years, 25 years of sterility. And I think that our little Mission, having to go through this long desert, of a painful desert of faith, and trust in the Lord. And I think the Lord is going to bring at His time, many vocations, but because He wants to bring a special divine fruitfulness, I believe, to this little mission, He’s had to prepare like He had to prepare Abraham, by this long period of trial, of apparent sterility. So, that has a lot of significance for us as the little Mission of Divine Mercy, but it also has significance for each one of us and all the different situations that we find ourselves. So just to conclude, remembering those words of Jesus, I chose you, so that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. And he said that to His apostles. But he’s saying that to each one of us, that He chose you. Why, so that you should bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. Each one of us has been chosen by Jesus to bear fruit. And then He tells us how that can happen. He who abides in Me, he it is, who bears much fruit by believing in Him, trusting in Him, obeying Him. Your life, no matter what situation you’re in, can bear much fruit. And just as for Jesus, the extreme fruitfulness of His life only became apparent after His death. He died, when He was dying on the cross, it would have seemed like that His life, even the efforts that He had made to start this new organization, this new, this new group had failed. And He seemed to be dying in failure and abandoned, just a few people were still there. And yet, that was the beginning of His infinite fruitfulness. And so our fruitfulness cannot be determined just by that what we can see humanly of the results of our life. Anyone who entrust themselves to Lord and dies in God’s love, having been faithful to Him, no matter what their human life seems like and no matter how poor the fruitfulness might seem, their human life will bear for all eternity, abundant fruit. And so in this Mass is the opportunity to come to the Lord with all our own disappointments and trials and heartbreaks. All the crosses we experience in our own life and unite them to His cross. That’s what the Mass is for, to bring to the cross of Jesus Christ, our crosses, our disappointments, our sufferings. Because when we do that, the very things which seem to destroy the fruit, of the human fruitfulness of our life, when we unite them to His sacrifice, they become the source of divine, abundant fruitfulness, to bear eternal abundant fruit. Amen
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Genisis 22:1-2, 9, 10-13, 15-18