The Holy Great-Martyr Marina; Passing into Eternal Life (1944) of Blessed Tarsykia (Matskiv) of the Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate, Martyr
Romans 13:1-10; Matthew 12:30-37
Read Matthew 12:30-37
I remember hearing about a bishop asking his priests about the vocation crisis in his Eparchy. With the decreasing numbers of men entering the seminary and proceeding into ordained ministry, the bishop had called a meeting to come up with a solution. “What will inspire these men to choose to give their lives to Christ?” he asked. One of the priests quietly responded: “Your canonization, Your Grace.”
Our Lord reminds us in our reading today that there is no substitute for holiness. Good fruit comes from good trees. Holy parents form holy children, holy bishops holy priests, and holy priests holy parishioners etc. There is simply no “program” for us as Christians to adopt to see the “results” we might want. Only the Holy Spirit’s program of making us into the saints we have been called to become.
St. Augustine writes: “Or this is an admonition to ourselves that we should be good trees that we may be able to bring forth good fruit; Make the tree good, and its fruit good, is a precept of health to which obedience is necessary. But what He says, Make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt, is not a command to do, but a warning to take heed, spoken against those who being evil thought that they could speak good things, or have good works; this the Lord declares is impossible. The man must be changed first, that his works may be changed; for if the man remains in that wherein he is evil, he cannot have good works; if he remains in that wherein he is good, he cannot have evil works. Christ found us all corrupt trees, but gave power to become sons of God to them that believe on His name.” Ser. 72.1