meditation — inexhaustible source of comfort to the humble.
'Even so every good tree yieldeth good fruit, and the bad tree yieldeth bad fruit.’ Hence, a good repentance must be distinguished from a bad one.
Strange state of a rational being: — that, failing to bring forth good fruit, he should be fit only to be burnt!
'By their fruits you shall know them’ — the good trees — and not by their leaves: that is, by their deeds, not their words. The fig-tree that Our Lord cursed had leaves; but because it bore no fruit Christ made it wither up: — ' May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.’[1] As a punishment for being barren, it is made yet more so. If we bring not forth fruit in due season, and when the Master looks for it, a time comes when we are unable to produce it at all.
A wise confessor should require fruit, and not merely leaves, from his penitent. He must not be satisfied either with what appears to be a good tree covered with foliage, or with blossoms wherein the fruit is beginning to set. He must obtain true, perfectly-formed fruits, or he will have reason to doubt the sincerity of the repentance.
- ↑ Matt. xxi. 19, 20.
