Gospel Reading : Luke 6:43-45
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
What do the Fathers say?
St EPHREM. The word of a person is the key to his mind. If the word is externalized, it reveals what was hidden within… The mouth is the porter of the heart: whatever is inside, that is what it brings
Nature cannot change its fruit, but the will can change its deeds. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit. Christ did not say this to signify that the nature of a person cannot change, but rather that the will, as long as it remains in evil, cannot produce good deeds.
A good person brings forth good things from the good storehouse of his heart. For the mind is a treasury, and the eye and the ear are its gatherers. If they gather good things, the treasury of the heart pours out good things; but if they gather bad things, it pours out evil things.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. Although the fruit is caused by the tree, yet it brings to us the knowledge of the tree, because the distinctive nature of the tree is made evident by the fruit, For every tree is known by its fruit.
St CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. Each man’s life also will be a criterion of his character. For not by extrinsic ornaments and pretended humility is the beauty of true happiness discovered, but by those things which a man does.
The Venerable BEDE. I think the thorns and bramble are the cares of the world and the prickings of sin, but the figs and the grapes are the sweetness of a new life and the warmth of love, but the fig is not gathered from the thorns nor the grape from the bramble, because the mind still debased by the habits of the old man may pretend to, but cannot bring forth the fruits of the new man.
The treasure of the heart is the same as the root of the tree. He therefore who has in his heart the treasure of patience and perfect love, brings forth the best fruits, loving his enemy, and doing the other things which have been taught. But he who keeps a bad treasure in his heart does the contrary to this.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
Saint Ephrem’s Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron,translated by Carmel McCarthy’
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