2211AFC031822 – Bear Fruit or Get The Boot
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“You’re preaching to the choir.” That’s probably true, but I’d like for the choir to share this with someone who hasn’t heard this tune before.
Luke 13:9 – 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. We continue today with a series on metanoia – repentance. Why do I keep harping on this? I do so because it is important and way too many people do not believe that. I’ll say again here at the outset that this post is written by a Catholic in a Catholic point of view. We will refer again to The 7 R’s, and discuss some other points of interest. Let’s begin with the source of today’s Key Verse – the Parable of the Fig Tree. Jesus has just discussed the murder of an undisclosed number of Galileans who were killed under Pilate’s orders while offering their sacrifices. (See Luke 9:1-5) He also 
mentions 18 others who were killed when a tower fell down on top of them in Siloam (↔ Click Link). The point he makes there is that these seemingly meaningless deaths had nothing to do with the sinfulness of the deceased. God was not “punishing them.” Then he warns those who are listening: “but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” Is he telling them that they, too, will all die suddenly either at the hands of others (Romans for example) or terrible accidents? No, he is not. He is, however, telling them that their presumptions about their own righteousness and how it is guaranteed by their own piety will not preserve them from spiritual death. This is consistent with the entire Gospel message, indeed the central message of the B.I.B.L.E. – REPENT AND BELIEVE.
Today’s Key Verse was chosen because in this present darkness way too many of us believe 
that we can save ourselves from eternal separation from God. When stated so starkly, we will say, “It’s OK. I’ve got it covered. I know my limits, and I’m square with God.” Jesus is telling us, “Hold on sinner! Your repentance is incomplete.” I saw this little meme the other day, and it seemed to be perfect for today! I captioned it “Pride = Ooopsie.” I don’t really want to go into the “one and done” argument, but I will say that everyone – everyone – I know is in need of repentance more frequently than just once in a lifetime, once in a year, or once in a season (those “CEO Christians – Christmas-Easter only). In my faith-life, repentance is part of a Sacrament (↔ Click Link) called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We’ll talk about that more shortly; first, though, we’ll look (again) at what repentance means.
We’ve stated here that it means to make a 180º turn back toward God. Did you know that Satan also wants us to repent? The Devil – the Foe, the Adversary, the Accuser – wants us to repent of our return to God and go back to serving his evil plans. No wonder we sometimes feel like we’re spinning like a maple seed! (Video Link!) There’s a key aspect of repentance we haven’t addressed here often: Permanence. Regardless of how we classify sins – mortal, venial, tiny, gigantic, stupid, secret, devastating, concupiscence, recurring, binding, and so on – the fact is that we try hard not to go back into Satan’s grasp by once again turning away from God, but it doesn’t always work and so we regain a blotch of sin on our souls. (Remember last week’s quote from the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-20 about not doing what he intended to do). Some of us think, “Oh well, everybody sins, and it’s not the end of the World if I do, too. After all I can always repent again.” There goes that arrow of pride right through the chink in our armor again! Let’s think about why we even have the opportunity to repent.
Christ died for the sins of the whole world (“whosoever,” remember?). He died for our sins – mine and yours – for the things that we do that offend God. Those things interfere with the fullest distribution of the love He gave us to share with everyone, including the people who sin against us. You see, Jesus made reparation to God for their sins too. So, He died for you, me, and for those who persecute us. Why not imitate Him better by praying not only for just those whom we love but also for people who have been, or are now, causing us pain? And since we know we can extend our prayers to them, can we not also pray for everyone who is praying with us or for us or about us? Should we then act further and also pray for everyone who will not or cannot pray? Or must we pray only for ourselves and for the few people who are willing to take the time and effort to remember us? Think about it, and then pray about it. Here’s what Frank said about that in last week’s post about repentance not lasting: “Unless you make it last. Think of it as a four-step process: Repent, believe, follow, repeat. When we repent and believe we are forgiven, that’s conversion. When we follow and repeat, that’s action. Conversion plus action equals … holiness.” ALL Christians should be following that four-step process. A few years back, we featured a process called The 7 R’s. Here is a brief outline summary:
Seven Key Words of Faith in God’s Forgiveness
1. Recognition
- See there is a problem
- Know that it is sin
- Know that I am powerless against it
- Remorse
- I regret the outcome of my actions
- I trust in God’s understanding of my sorrow
- Repentance
3.1. I make a conscious decision to correct my thinking, my communications, and my actions
3.2. I make that decision public through my actions
- Reconciliation
- I am resolved to restore the relationships with God and with my community that I have damaged through my sin
- I seek and accept forgiveness from God and my community
- Reparation
- I am willing to atone and to offer compensation for the damage I have caused
- I gratefully acknowledge expiation of my sins
- Renewal
- I am transformed by the renewal of my heart, my mind, and my actions.
- I make it my resolve to avoid the kinds of circumstances that enabled me to sin
- Rejoicing
- I rejoice in the restoration of a right relationship with God and my community.
- I share my rejoicing freely and still, with due humility, show respect for others
Our goal is to spend Eternity in Heaven with God and all his Angels and Saints. One of the main objectives we embrace to achieve that goal is continuous conversion. In much the same way we make “pray without ceasing” a reality by making our entire life a prayer (↔ Click Link), we can make continuous conversion a commitment to following the first 4 R’s daily. As the saying goes, “Easy to say, hard to do.” It’s hard for several reasons – we forget (the most common reason), we’re embarrassed (probably the second-most), we don’t recognize the sin in our lives (the beam versus the speck in Matthew 7:3), or (saddest and worst of all) we just don’t care. That last one explains a lot about the failure of the constant decline of participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation – and that correlates with the constant decline and abandonment of family values. Now, I just said there are several reasons. The thing is those are really excuses, things we think or say in order to justify ourselves and our actions, and to redirect the blame elsewhere (Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine – “The Devil made me do it”). Satan can entice, confuse, accuse, or abuse us, but even he cannot force us to sin! Why is that? Because we have Free Will and therefore chose to sin even when we know it is wrong and separates us from God’s Good Grace.
Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of confession when he appeared to the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection.
[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain they are retained.” (See John 20:21-23)
From this moment on, Catholic churches and priests took on the ministry of forgiveness of sins, the power of forgiving, as a direct command from the Lord. This can be seen in the apostolic constitutions and other early Christian writings such as the Didache (↔ Click Link for the text). Many such writings can be found in the Catholic encyclopedia found at www.newadvent.org. Catholic Answers does a much better job of explaining in detail how the power of binding and losing sin was passed on than I can hope to present here. Consider this from Jethro Higgins, website manager for www.ocp.org: “Suffice it to say that Jesus chose to establish the ministry of reconciliation to obtain forgiveness of sins in a way that requires both the grace of God and the Church, the Body of Christ. The confession of sins and sacramental absolution were divinely inspired by the Father of mercies. The Church carries out His will and returns to God all the glory for He has chosen to share with us His mercy.” [i]
In summary, we can say that repentance should lead us to a state of continuous conversion which is possible by maintaining rigorous reflection on our thoughts, words, and deeds in light of the Gospel and the requirements of the Sacrament. That should, in turn, bring us to the decision and acceptance of Reconciliation. We can find the best success if we remember where we sin, and where we repent.
Where do we repent? To answer that question, we need to look at where we sin. Where do we sin? Is it a physical place? No, it’s not really like that. We can sin in any location – at home, at work, even in church. Sin is a spiritual predicament, a drawback in our day-to-day living that gets between our life and God’s Life. Our spirit comes from God and it is like him for God is Spirit, and we must worship him (and Love him) in Spirit and in Truth, so I would posit that it’s not in our Spirit that we sin – in fact I’d say we sin against our Spirit. So what does that leave? What part of our spiritual life isn’t Spirit? Let’s take a quick clue from Proverbs 20:9 – 9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin”? Looking back to Genesis 6:5, we read, 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. It is in our hearts and minds that we sin. Imagination, the gift of thought, is one of God’s greatest gifts. It must have been in us even before the Fall, because Eve and Adam were able to imagine what it would be like to be more like God. That was the first instance where earthlings misused the gift of thought and instead of thinking up something good, something evil entered the heart and mind of humanity. The Hebrew word root used here is יֵ֫צֶר (yetser) {yay’-tser} – thought, the forming of ideas in the mind, imagination, mind, frame / framework. It is also translated as inclination of the human heart. If that is where we sin, perhaps that is where we begin to repent. What will we find if we look – right now – into our hearts? Will it be The Word? If so, we will be led to contrition. Contrition leads to repentance – or at least it should. This leads to extraordinary graces. You can read about those here: Psalm 103:1-5
Jesus spoke quite plainly about excising sin from your lives. We are to use our Free Will to choose God and not self. Those who fail to do that are subject to dire consequences up to and including eternal separation from God. It behooves us, then, to “Repent and believe the Gospel.” That is how we are to be pruned, cultivated, nourished, and avoid being booted out of our place in Paradise.
This post is about the Catholic Sacrament RECONCILIATION, especially the concept of Repentance. As such, non-Catholic readers may not agree with its content. We refer you to The 7ays R’s (http://aloha-friday.org/archives/8031) for more information.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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[i]Higgins, Jethro ©2022 OCP Blog Series: Sacraments of Healing. All Rights Reserved Oregon Catholic Press 5536 NE Hassalo St. Portland, OR 97213 Permission Pending
