Homily for Sunday 8^th Sunday in ordinary time

Readings: Sir 27:4-7,1Cor 15:54-58,Lk 6:39-45

What kind of fruits do we produce?

Once again God has presented to us an enormous opportunity to self examine our life especially as Christians. God called us in His infinite love and goodness to be His children and help Him in establishing His kingdom on earth.

As Christians, called by the Father and made new through baptism, we are expected to live a life worthy of our new nature. As we preach the kingdom by word of mouth, so must we be witnesses to it through our actions.

God’s word today says that you shall know every tree by its fruits. Our output in life is what will determine whether we are real Christians or not.

In the first reading, Sirach uses an imagery of a sieve. He says what remains in the sieve after the sieving process is the unwanted. He equates this sieve to the tongue that lets out words from our mouths. So in this case, the dirt that is in the heart of man is made manifest by the words that he speaks. Our words will tell others what kind of people we are and what we treasure in our hearts. Can we take stock of what we say and see where we stand as Christians?

In the gospel reading, Jesus shows how we lose moral authority in rebuking the ills of others if we don’t take time to sieve our own life but take too much time pointing at the ills of others. As we are called to help each other live according to our Christian lives, we must realize that the first to evangelize and try to convert is our very selves. Only then, by the help of our virtuous living shall we be able to preach to others by means of our words and actions. The fruits we bear with our lives will be a more powerful message to others even in trying to correct them than simply looking for planks in other people’s eyes yet the log we have in our own is blinding us.

Blessed Sunday to all!