Who Cares?

A Homily for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

I have a bit of a penchant for hyperbole. Something in me loves to make the outlandish statement, the bold assertion, the near ridiculous claim. Now, if I only liked hyperbole because I enjoy being provocative, or because I take pleasure in stirring the pot just to stir the pot, then I am what St. Paul might call a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Because I do it without love. But the art of hyperbole is to make the dramatic claim in order to shake our sleeping selves awake to something much more fundamental.

So here is a little hyperbole for you this morning, and I hope to offer it as an act of love. In this homily I am going to tell you both “What’s wrong with the world” and “How we can fix it!”

I want to start with a simple image. Here is how the world works: You take a cart. You take a horse. You place the cart in front of the horse. And then you proceed to yell at the horse, curse the horse, call the horse all sorts of derogatory names because the horse “isn’t doing its job!” The story ends, usually, with said horse being declared useless and committed to the local glue factory.

So here is a simple image about how to fix what’s wrong with the world: You take a cart. You take a horse. You place the cart behind the horse… and what happens? The horse takes off effortlessly, in freedom it fulfills its task, and maybe it even does it with joy! And instead of the horse being dismissed to the glue factory, the horse is enabled to give the world what God created the horse to give the world.

Our scriptures today, though, are not about horses but all about trees. The Psalmist describes all of us as trees planted near running water, created to flourish and to receive from God daily what we need to flourish. The writer of Sirach tells us: “The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had. And Jesus reminds us, “Every tree is known by it own fruit.”

A hallmark of Pope Francis’ papacy has been the desire to liberate us from our insistence upon putting the cart before the horse, or expecting good fruit from the tree even though we show it no care, especially in regard to how we live our faith. We can all tend to rant and rave about: Why is that person not following the rules? Why does that person do liturgy wrong? Why does that person flaunt the moral expectations of our religion? Why isn’t that person more pious, more faithful? And what naturally follows? The glue factory! We dismiss, we deride, we degrade and we destroy.

“The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had.” When we are tempted to yell at someone, complain about how they live, the choices they make, the resistance they perhaps display… it is easier to write them off and dismiss them as lost causes. But when we are tempted to get up on our high horse, cart or no cart, can we stop a moment and wonder to ourselves: “Maybe that particular tree, that particular person, hasn’t received the care or the love they need to freely give themselves over to the rules, the expectations, the guidelines?”

Jesus tells us: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit.” We are all good trees. If our fruit is misshapen, immature, unripe, spotted and a little wormy, it’s not because we are bad, but perhaps, it is because we have not received the care and the love we need so we can effortlessly, and in freedom, and maybe even with some joy, produce the fruit for which God created us to produce.

Let me go back to Pope Francis and putting the cart behind the horse. Our call is to first, encounter Christ in the other person. Second, we are called to listen attentively to the person (rather than telling them what’s wrong with them!). Third, we are called to walk with the person, be with the person, basically show the kind of care and love for the person that will help liberate them, that will put the cart in it’s appropriate relationship to the horse in their own lives. And then stand back and watch that tree, that person, bear amazing fruit, watch that horse, that person, take off in a joyful gallop!

Jesus says: “For every tree is known by its OWN fruit.” We don’t get to insist that others bear the fruit we think they should bear… that’s putting the cart before the horse. Our role is to put in the effort, the time, the patience, the care and the love, to help our brothers and sisters produce their OWN fruit… their own unique manifestation of Christ in this world.

As we approach Ash Wednesday this week and a fresh Lenten Season, perhaps we might take some time to ask ourselves: How am I putting the cart before the horse in my own life and basically making it impossible for me to produce the good fruit I was created to produce? And how am I perhaps doing the same to my brothers and sisters?

Let us pray in this Eucharist today, that God may help each of us this coming Lent to recommit ourselves to putting the cart behind the horse in our own lives so we can assist others to do the same for themselves.

The quality of the fruit depends directly on the quality of care we have shown the tree.