“Vegetables? Yea I like’em, but
fruits?! Bleh!” #Thingsjesusneversaid. Jesus liked fruits. To him they were the
perfect metaphor for the good stuff. St. Paul says, “The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” When talking
about knowing the difference between a false prophet and true prophet, Christ
was all like, “Bro you’ll know them by the fruits that they produce.” He said (paraphrasing) that grapes are not picked from thorn bushes and good fruit does not grow on bad trees, but hold on to that thought
for a sec.
The purpose of Lent is to ready
ourselves to renew our baptismal promises. We walk around the “desert” for
forty days, denying ourselves pleasures, praying to God, and giving our time
and our talents to others for their benefit, because Christ-likeness is the
goal we all race towards. Prayer and fasting are great, but I think almsgiving
is overlooked in college. Traditionally it's giving money or time to the poor--even
more traditionally farmed produce--although as college student most of us are
about a farm short of free wheat. But, almsgiving is more than giving out cashcrops.
We can give away time and lend our talents.
The important factor in almsgiving is the word “giving,” and in that word lies
the nature of our existence.
Created in the image of the God, we
were made to give. The infinite exchange of love between the Father and the
Son, both of whom give themselves and receive each other completely in love,
begets the Holy Spirit. Marriage images this in that a husband and wife mirror
that exchange of love in the giving of themselves and beget a child. We all are
called to give and not just in marriage. Remember the story about talents? A
man given five talents from his master, returned double what he was given, and
rather than the master replying, “Bro sit
down, chill with me,” the master gives him another talent to do double. Why?
Because our joy consists in giving as the faithful man had done.
As far as talents go, if you can do it, then it
is a talent. Listening is an action that not everyone can perform, but for
those who can, they can use it to comfort the distressed. And as for fruits? Well,
what good would fruits be if only trees ate them? They wouldn’t be. In Mark,
Jesus heals a blind man in two stages. After he moisturizes the mans eyes with
his spit, he asked “What do you see?” and the blind man replied, “I see men
like trees walking.” We are like trees. Some will resemble Christ who is the
tree of life bearing all good fruit and some will be as barren as the cursed
fig tree. But the point is that our fruit is not for us but for everyone else, and
people enjoy our fruit through the time and talents that we give. The question
is do people feel joy when you help them? Or gentleness when you offer advice?
Or justice when you defend them? Or faithfulness when they are counting on you?
If the blind man saw you, what fruit would he see? Would he desire it?
--Dominic Price
