Good Trees and Bad Trees

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 7:15-20

2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3

We live in a world where it seems not always easy to distinguish between true prophets and false prophets—between good and bad trees. One of the famous Vietnamese preachers said that “there is nothing more like the truth than falsity itself.”

What Jesus said in the Gospel is true, and we must be aware of it. However, the hard part for us is discerning between a “bad tree” and a “good tree” Because it seems the good tree may bear evil fruits too. And bad trees may bear good fruits.

Here is what St. Jerome comments. “If a good tree can never bear evil fruit, how did Moses sin with a “good tree” at the waters of contradiction (cf. Deut 32:51), or how did David seduce Bathsheba after killing Uriah, or Peter give his denial during the Lord’s passion, saying, “I do not know the man” (Mark 14:71)? Or why would Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, who was truly a “bad tree” because he did not believe in the God of Israel, give good counsel to Moses,) or the apostle Paul was an “evil tree” during the time when he persecuted the Church of Christ. He later bore good fruit when he was transformed into a vessel of God’s grace. So, St. Jerome, he means that if the bad and good trees remain in what they are, they would not be something else.”

What does this mean for us? Does it imply that a good person can never turn corrupt or a corrupt person can never turn good? Jesus is not saying that an evil person is incapable of change or that a good person will never fall. His message is that as long as a person persists in a corrupt lifestyle, they will not be able to produce good fruits. Consider this: by the grace of God, a person may transition from evil to virtue, but if they persist in their evil ways, they won't bear good fruit. This is a critical reminder that our actions carry weight, and our right is to choose the path to good fruit. It's a journey, and we are all capable of transformation if we choose the path to good fruit.

If a person steadfastly remains as good as they have always been, they will produce good fruits. The most effective way to stay good or transform into goodness is to remain in God, for 'Whoever remains in God will bear much fruit.'

May God bless us all.