Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Let us look at some biblical trees.
In Genesis we have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve saw the bad side of the tree after they ate of it and discovered death.
Jesus cursed a fig tree a week before he died because it had borne no fruit: it withered and died.
Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus and was invited to welcome Jesus to supper at his home with other tax collectors.
The tree on which Jesus hung was the tree that brought eternal life into the world.
By their fruit you will know the good tree and the bad tree.
We know, however, in our time, that trees are not morally good or bad. We do have healthy trees that bear fruit and sickly trees that produce little fruit if any. We do cut down the sickly ones and nurture the healthy ones. We can ask ourselves what kind of tree we are.
Christ will not cut us down but will nurture us into health because he came to give life not death. Even in the nanosecond it takes for a submissible to implode, Jesus has time and power enough to heal and bring to eternal life. By Christ’s fruit, we know Christ; by our fruit, does Christ know us?