What Fruit Is Your Life Producing?

In this sermon, Fr. Elijah reflects on the repeated image of the vineyard throughout the day’s readings and asks a simple but searching question: What fruit is your life producing? God planted His vineyard, cared for it, protected it, and gave it everything necessary to become fruitful. The problem was never with the Vinedresser. The problem was that the vineyard failed to become what it had been created to be. Fr. Elijah connects this image to Israel, the parable of the vineyard, the fig tree of Holy Monday, St. Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 9, the Catholic Epistle, and especially St. Mary, whom the Church calls the appropriate vineyard who bore the cluster of life. St. Mary becomes the model of a fruitful vineyard because she responded to grace. She lived in obedience, communion, consecration, and readiness for God. In the same way, every Christian receives Christ in the Eucharist and is given the Holy Spirit, but the question remains: Is that grace actually producing fruit in us?