Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Yrs 1 and 2 2025
Saints Homilies • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsPaul shows that there are times when bad trees bear good fruit because Jesus transforms them, while Jesus shows there are times when good trees do not bear good fruit for the world, the flesh, and the devil corrupt them like pests corrupting a tree. But if we both hear the words of Jesus and do them we are like a tree bearing good fruit. Thus I pray for such virtues and graces daily. I finish with two examples of people doing just that, one being St John Chrysostom.
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
Good Fruit from Bad Trees Transformed
Outline
Outline
Bad trees can bear good fruit with Jesus
Bad trees can bear good fruit with Jesus
Paul presents himself as a bad tree indeed, but one chosen by Jesus to show how he can transform it to bear fruit for the glory of God.
Never give up on the bad trees out there, but pray the chaplet of divine mercy begging the Lord to transform them rather than cut them down.
Good trees can bear bad fruit given the world the flesh and the devil
Good trees can bear bad fruit given the world the flesh and the devil
There are good trees out there that should be bearing good fruit but don’t. They started off well confessing Jesus as Lord, even making radical commitments to follow him, but the world, the flesh and the devil got in there like bad weather and tree borers and tent caterpillars and the fruit is not very good, like the peach trees in the yard of Mission House.
We should never presume on our good formation and solid theological education, for dark forces can use the storms of life to distort us or get into our minds and poison us from the inside. No, we always need to be asking whether we are following Jesus.
But if the bark holds off pests and the wood stays strong a good tree bears good fruit.
But if the bark holds off pests and the wood stays strong a good tree bears good fruit.
We must store goodness in our hearts so we bring out a store of good things with our mouths. So I pray for a renewal of the gifts of the Spirit daily and I watch my inner thoughts, praying to Our Lady of Silence to help me silence those that are not good so that when my mouth opens good comes out.
I also want to do what Jesus says, so I read scripture daily, not just in the liturgy, but also in addition to the liturgy, and in my case whenever I can in the original. But the key is not to fall into the trap of explaining away God’s/Jesus’ radicalism (“What he really means is . . .”) but instead to let it sink into my heart until until it takes root, convicts me, springs up, and I find myself bearing fruit I would never have dreamed of before.
Just before I wrote this I listened to a podcast from Ave Maria University.
Just before I wrote this I listened to a podcast from Ave Maria University.
Dr. Larry Chapp was the interviewee, a professor for many years who loved teaching undergraduates and who also kept his theological credentials up to date. Then he realized during his lectio divina that it was time to take early retirement, move, and establish a Catholic Worker farm as a context in which he could live his faith more deeply with others. He is a good tree bearing good fruit.
St John Chrysostom has internalized the teaching of Jesus so deeply that when chosen bishop of Constantinople his golden words were formed, not by kowtowing to the emperor or the leaders of the city, by Jesus speaking through him. The storms of I believe three exiles could not shake him from bearing this fruit. I love reading his homilies and asking myself if I am living as he did.
Those are two of the types of trees we should hope to be or become by the grace of God.
And God bless you.
