Known By Its Own Fruit

 Luke 6:43-49

A Tree and Its Fruit

⁴³ “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, ⁴⁴ for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Build Your House on the Rock

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.⁴⁹  But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

As we celebrate the memorial of THE MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY, we encounter the "good tree" who produced not only good, but the best of fruit, Jesus Christ.  Mary's willingness to accept the proposal to mother the Son of God, required a faith and trust that makes whatever faith and trust we have pall in comparison. Yet Mary's faith poses a goal for which we can strive and be assured that she will help our efforts. In the simple and popular prayer, THE HAIL MARY, we petition her to "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."  She, like the rock to which Jesus refers, provides a solid foundation and model for us from which to learn and from which to derive the strength and persistence to make a daily effort in prayer and action to deepen our faith and make us known as effective witnesses by the fruit we bear.

Bro, Rene