WORDS OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING; FRUITS OF GOODNESS
A happy & joyful 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time to you & your family. Our key theme this weekend is praise & thanksgiving. We want to focus on what the Lord in His goodness has done for us. The Introit or Entrance Antiphon, written by King David from Psalm 18:19-20 so eloquently expresses this: “The Lord became my protector. He brought me out to a place of freedom; he saved me because he delighted in me.” Let’s dive into the scriptures to explore more …
Our 1st Reading from Ecclesiasticus 27:4-7 remind us that the true measure of a person is the quality of his fruitfulness & his spoken words that come from the thoughts of his mind & the depths of his heart. Good thoughts & emotions bring forth strong & positive actions & good fruit.
Our Gospel from Luke 6:39-45 similarly reinforces this point. A sound tree produces only sound fruit; a good man draws good out of the goodness of his heart; a man’s words flow out from what fills his heart.
In the field of personal development, there is this principle called the Process of Manifestation. It goes like this – our Thoughts lead to our Feelings; these translate into Actions; and finally bringing forth Results. This aligns very closely to what we discussed above.
Our thoughts & feelings are not visible to us – they only reside inside of us & can be seen as our Roots. Our Actions & Results, however, are visible, tangible & can be experienced. These can be seen as our Fruits. In life, if we want new & better outcomes or fruits, we must 1st & foremost address the roots. And if we want dramatically different outcomes, then we have got to make a radical change in our thinking & feelings – in fact, radical comes from the Latin word radix, which is … wait for it … root!
So, how can we take the lessons from scripture this weekend & apply it in our lives, so that we can be more fruitful? Firstly, in the sphere of THINK, we have got to take on the mind of our Lord & think more like Jesus. I love the advice St Paul gives in Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This ‘renewing of our mind’ is a continuous process of our staying close to Jesus, reading & pondering His Word, seeking His help to do God’s will, submitting our preferences, desires, decision making & choices to Him for direction, & trusting Jesus at all times. Doing these will help us get rid of ‘stinking thinking’ – those unsupportive & negative thought patterns that keep us trapped in unhappiness & frustration.
The area of FEEL deals with what our scriptures call THE HEART. Here, we must ensure that positive emotions of love, thankfulness, joy, patience & kindness etc continue to flood our souls always. A great way to strengthen the FEEL in our life is to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with God’s love (cf Romans 5:5) & take control of our emotions, so that they may be pleasing to God & that it may uplift others too.
The sphere of ACT involves our speech & physical actions that we take. When our THINK & FEEL are positive, we will speak positive words & perform positive acts. Our speech will be words of praise & thanksgiving, reflecting what we sing in our Responsorial Psalm today: “It is good to give you thanks, O Lord” (cf Psalm 92:2). Our actions will all be focussed at doing what is good, right & acceptable for our family, friends, community & the society at large, & aimed at glorifying God.
What about our RESULTS? Well, the fruits of our well-lived life will be described as sweet, tasty, impactful, an overflowing harvest of goodness to feed, nourish & nurture others. Indeed, for us who love Jesus, remain close to Christ in His love & stay open to the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit of ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness & self-control’ (cf Galatians 5;22-23) will be the very visible hallmark of our lives. Remember – it’s not our success, wealth, status, achievements, accolades, awards etc that matter; but our fruitfulness in producing this fruit of the Holy Spirit that count. We will then be, like the Psalm says (Psalm 92:13-14), “still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green.”
Let us all, then, today, put on the mind of Christ, feel the sweetness of His love in our hearts, lift our praises & thanksgiving to Him, & yield a harvest of wonderful fruit for God.
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead