BOKASYONG AGUSTINO MINISTRY

This is a reflection on Lk. 6:43-49.

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We Filipinos have a saying “kung ano ang puno, siya ang bunga”. We believed that our identity is always connected on the way our parents or family raise us. On Catechism of the Filipino Catholics it was stated that it is from our families that we Filipinos naturally draw our sense of self identity. We believed that our values are the values we inherited from our parents, I remember during my highschool days when my teacher which so happen to be my parents teacher before would often say “manang mana ka sa magulang mo”. Every result of our action would always reflect and being point out to our parents, to our families and much bigger to our clans, we would hear “ganyan nga ang lahi ng mga yan” or “yan eh angkan ng mga...”. Our values has always been affiliated to our parents, we are being considered as their fruits, Filipinos would often look to each one of us in accordance with the identity of our parents and family, that’s why if we have done something contrary to the identity of our families we would hear “bakit ganyan ka, hindi naman ganyan ang magulang mo?”.

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On our gospel today we were able to hear the same context, a tree known by its fruits. “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. Looking on a more Christian context we are part of God’s Family, were God is Our Father. Being His son we are then considered as His fruits, and as we know that God is the source of all goodness, we are supposed to be a good fruit as well and being develop as a good tree just like God our Father. This today’s gospel is an invitation for me to look on what are the fruits that I already bore and looking forward, on what will be the fruits that I should bear. On this journey on our vocation we are being form to live in the community, to be one in the community. I then asked myself, what are the fruits that I bore in our community? Would that be the sour grapes of anger and other negative concepts or would that be a sweet apple of love. If someone of you were able to taste the sourness of my fruits, I am sorry. Please give me a chance to bear good fruits, help me to bear more good fruits. To live in the community is to share the fruits of goodness to everyone, let me share to you a story I read about a farmer who has an award winning corn.

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There once was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked. "Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn." He is very much aware of the contentedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

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Our gospel to day invites us to be an inspiration of goodness. To put waters and minerals of concern to everyone in our community so that each one of us can bear good fruits. May our community be a community who has a strong foundation so that when a strong river burst it will remain firm and strong.

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I often heard the saying “you are what you eat” as we received Jesus in the Eucharist it was then a calling for me and for us to be more Christ like, may the Eucharist be the fertilizer of our souls to bear more good fruits.

 

Let me end my sharing with a prayer: “Make my heart like yours O Lord, so that I will be able to bear good fruit to everyone. Teach me to always follow your will so that I will become a tree of life and love to my neighbor. Amen.”