Can a sound tree produce rotten fruit

No doubt much has been written of the events of the last week with the judgement made regarding Cardinal Pell. I certainly do not intend to add to the commentary especially while we await an appeal of his case. There are many who are more eloquent and informed about legal processes than me. Yet what needs to be acknowledged is the immediate fallout that this has on the life of those who have suffered abuse and those who seek to support them. The effect goes much wider because it goes to the heart of how to believe God is revealed through the life of another. This weekend I think the reading speaks to us about three things which are important for us to remember in our Christian life.

"The disciple is not superior to his teacher" In this simple phrase Jesus talks to us about the importance of discipleship based on our faithfulness to His Life. We are called always back to a life which reflects on how our lives are called to speak of a deeper reality rather than just our own. This calls us to become aware of how God is actually speaking to our age and how we are called to listen to God and each other. 

"Brother let me take the splinter out of your eye when you cannot see the plank in your own." There is always a tendency that we can see clearly when others cannot. This is a  common perception when we seek to correct another without also examining our own perspective. We never attend to the issues in life isolated from our own context and our own viewpoint. Once we become aware of this we do not seek to perpetuate the errors we find within others within ourselves.

""For every tree can be told by its own fruit". This may be the sobering element of this week's Gospel as it does not seek to look just at our intentions but rather at the fruit that we produce in our lives which are signs of the spirit: love, joy, peace, fortitude, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are contrasted in Galatians 5.19-21 with the signs of the flesh. What is important is the closing line of the gospel which says that a man's words flow out of what fills his heart. As Odette Churchill mentioned on her reflection of the great evils perpetrated in World War 2 which she endured in the Ravensbrook Prison Camp that we should not become the host for the very parasite of evil which we have opposed in the life of another. 

At this time more than ever we need to be people who pray and act in a way which is formed by the person we seek to follow and thus reflect the words of the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 15.58 where he says, "Keep on working at the Lord's work always knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain."