One of the basic principles of the moral life is “avoid evil and do good.”  Now there is a whole lot of evil out there in the world today.  There are many pitfalls that we can fall into, there are many occasions for sin that are close at hand, not more than a mouse click away.  It takes a great deal of discipline in our daily spiritual lives to avoid evil and to deal with its effects in our lives.  During this time of Lent we have a tendency to focus on our sinfulness, to grapple with the devil and all of his temptations, to acknowledge our weaknesses before the Lord and to seek conversion from evil to the good.  All of this is good and a necessary part of our spiritual journey.  We need conversion in our lives, we need to purify our hearts and be freed from the shackles of sin that weigh us down.  However, this is only part of the journey.  This is only the beginning and we have not yet advanced to a true friendship with the Lord or a true love unless we continue on in the journey of growth to the more advanced stages in which we live in God’s love and bear the fruit of that love in our lives.  As the moral axiom instructs us we must “avoid evil” but the second part of that axiom teaches us that we must “do good”.  We are not truly living the life of Christ until we have advanced to the stage of doing good and bearing the fruit of love in our lives.  If we are truly sharing in the Divine life that is our inheritance through baptism, then we must allow the grace of God to flower within us and to bear the fruit of his creative goodness in our lives.

    Throughout the scriptures God has used the image of a vine or vineyard to describe Israel.  As the master of the vineyard the Lord comes to the vineyard seeking a harvest; good, sweet, healthy grapes that can be pressed into a delicious and delightful wine.  If the vineyard is not producing grapes or is producing wild and sour grapes then the vineyard is not serving the purpose that the Lord had intended for it.  Jesus also used this image to speak of discipleship when he compared himself to the vine and his disciples as the branches of the vine.  If we remain in the Lord then we will “bear much fruit” (Jn 15,5).  If we are not bearing fruit then there must be something wrong, something that is keeping us from God’s grace.

    In the thirteenth chapter of the gospel of Luke we have the parable of the fig tree that is not bearing fruit.  We are the fig tree planted by the Lord and we are meant to bear delicious fruit, the fruit of the good which gladdens our lives and the lives of others.  The tree in Jesus’ parable is a good tree, it doesn’t seem to have any disease nor is it rotting away.  It is a lot like many of our friends and family who do not practice their faith but are declared to be “a good person”.  The tree is cared for by the master of the orchard but it still has not borne fruit.  It isn’t giving anything back to the kind gardener.  Though it is a good looking tree, if it is not bearing fruit then it is only taking up space and not accomplishing the purpose that it was created for.  The wise gardener would recognize the wasted resources being spent on the tree and he would just cut it down.  However, the gardener is a merciful, kind and caring person and he wants to give it another chance to reach its potential and so he spares it for a time.

    Our lives are meant to bear good fruit.  Not only should we “not be doing evil” but we should also be actively “doing the good”.  There should be good fruit to show for the work that the Lord has done in our lives.  As the psalmist proclaims:  “How can I repay the Lord for all the good done for me?  I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” (Ps 116,12ff)  During this season of Lent we should not only be thinking of seeking forgiveness for our sins but we should also be active in our faith and considering the good that we are called to do in our lives and the fruit that we are meant to bear to please the Lord.  God has given us this season of grace to cultivate our spiritual lives so that they might bear fruit in the future.  We need to cooperate with the good work of the master gardener in our lives and allow his care to flow through us and to become the inspiration for doing good and bearing much fruit in our lives.