In the Northern Hemisphere, the seasons have moved along from Spring to early Summer. The significant growth of sprouting plants and flowers marked the joyful season of Easter, and the green explosion of new tree leaves has transformed the empty dormant branches of Winter.

Farmers and gardeners cherish this time, and Jesus’ teaching today (Matthew 7) speaks especially to anyone who grows things. The parable of good and bad trees points out the obvious: some trees planted for fruit give little or nothing if rotten, blighted by disease, parched by drought, or severely damaged. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Think of Judgement Day!)

When Jesus grew from childhood into a young adult, did Mary share the words of the angel to her on Annunciation Day? “Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus!” This is our Jesus: God’s own Son, born of Mary. At the end of Jesus’ earthly life, the wood of a tree did bear the body of Christ as he passed from life into death, only to rise again in three days. “Behold, behold the wood of the Cross, on which has hung our salvation.”

That very wood was made holy by the touch of Christ’s Body and Blood. Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist, spent his life raising before us this sacred Body and Blood. He wrote to Mrs. Lepage in 1867, “To remove the bitterness and horrors of the cross, which are intertwined with this life, Jesus, in his love, made this cross blossom with the flowers of Paradise.” Here indeed is a “good tree” that “bears good fruit”!

Let us pray:

Dear God, may we always revere the life of Christ and be worthy of the promises of Christ. Help us seek out and consume with love the fabulous gift, the “good fruit” Jesus left for us in the Holy Eucharist. Amen.