Bearing rich fruit

Central to our Christian faith is the belief that our physical death is not the end but rather the gateway to and the beginning of a new, resurrected life with God.

The belief that death opens the door to life leads to the idea that, even in this earthly existence, death is necessary and a precursor to life.

As Jesus said: “…unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (Jn 12:24). The seed itself disappears, is consumed and in its place, life emerges. The seed dies in order to yield rich fruit.

In our daily lives, it is easy to become totally focused on the enjoyment of the fruits. We pursue the good things of life, good food, leisure and liming, travel, and whatever earthly pleasures money can buy.

There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with enjoying the good things of life which ultimately come from God. Where we tend to go wrong is in excessive consumption, beyond what is necessary for our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, and in forgetting that the fruits we enjoy, the things we consume, all involve sacrifices which have been made to produce them.

We forget the workers that laboured to make what we eat and use. We forget that we use up natural resources, and oftentimes in so doing harm the environment. We forget that there are many people who lack the very things we waste or throw away.

It is here that we discern the value and purpose of Lent, as a period of sacrifice and remembering. We give up or sacrifice certain things, perhaps those things we enjoy the most, to help us recall what has been sacrificed in producing them.

It is interesting that all the major religions embrace the practice of a period of fasting and, this year, Ramadan overlaps with Lent.

The physical sacrifice involved in fasting or denying oneself customary pleasures hopefully induces a spiritual awakening. Fasting leads to prayer, which leads to reflection on our mortality and drives us to contemplate the conditions which assure our spiritual immortality.

This should, as the whole Lenten journey is supposed to, lead us to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus Christ that opens the door to our new, resurrected life when we die.

However, while we continue to exist in this world, the Lenten journey should also inspire us to reflect on the ways in which our ongoing lives can be made to bear rich fruit.

That means, and can only mean, that we try to live our lives so that other human beings, family, and friends, near and far, can benefit from what we do, from the sacrifices that we are prepared to make.

The form that that takes depends on the gifts that each one of us has been given. It is our task to discern what our gifts are and then to use them for the benefit of others. We can view Lent simply as a period of conversion or spiritual renewal. We can also see that, beyond the period of Lent, its real value is an ‘ongoing conversion’ that prompts the daily sacrifices we make to benefit others so that this earthly life foreshadows the life to come.