September 12, 2026 Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time Gospel: Luke 6:43–49
Today is Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time. The passage taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke presents us with another teaching of Jesus addressed to His disciples. Let us try to reflect on it.
First, Jesus says to His disciples: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43–45)
As I meditate on this passage, I am reminded of a saying in Chinese culture: “As you sow melons, so shall you reap melons; as you sow beans, so shall you reap beans.” I also think of the idea of cause and effect in traditional Chinese culture. Yet I feel that these popular sayings, and this so-called “cause and effect,” do not quite correspond to the teaching Jesus wishes to convey. For what Jesus wants to tell us through this passage is that we are all planted in this world by God Himself, and it is the Word of God that takes root in us and causes us to grow here on earth. If we act in accordance with the commands of our Saviour, then the Word of God will take deeper root in our hearts and bear lasting fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If, however, we have received the Word of God but do not obey it, then the devil and every power opposed to the Word of God will sow the seeds of evil in our hearts, and the fruit they bear will be the evil that sets itself against God.
I have often said: the motives of our heart drive our body to act in a corresponding way. If our thoughts are set on the things of God, and if our heart is willing to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit unconditionally, then our body will move in response to the driving power of the Word that God has planted within us; and at that moment, we are truly doing the will of God. Yet, in carrying out the will of God, we shall also face various challenges — but we need not be afraid, because our faith is built not upon soft, shifting sand, but upon Christ, who is as solid as a rock. We know that God is invincible: Jesus Christ, by His death upon the cross, conquered the death that we once feared, so that all who have received His Baptism and the anointing of the Holy Spirit no longer live in the shadow of death, but in the true light given us by the Word of God.
O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
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