In John 15:5, Jesus says, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit”

I have had apples on my mind. The last few weeks scripture and life has made me think a lot about fruit…abundance and blessing that comes from fruit but also the rottenness that can slip into our fruit and the fruitfulness we are called to live.
First, a few years ago I read an article about the renascence of the apple industry. If I remember correctly, the article was focused on how the local farmer markets were feeding a boom in the varieties of apples. How unlike the large super markets with just a few varieties of apples, many of the small and local varieties were making a comeback because of the “farmer market.” So, this week I searched the internet with a simple question, How many varieties of apples are in the world. The answer: more than 7,500 varieties. What a great blessing.
And then I thought about how there were even within the varieties many more than this because of the natural variances like; where were they grow, how much rain and when it came, the sun, the wind, the chill of night and heat of day, the altitude and soil, all producing a difference. Then the man made: the pruning, the irrigation, the fertilizer and the other ways trees are cared for, including the genetic selection and engineering, producing again variation in variations. I think you get the point.
Each tree, each apple from the tree produces a fruit that will taste different…but it is still an apple.
Can the tree produce bad fruit. Yes. Lack of care, natural environmental problems and disease or other issues can cause a tree to produce bad tasting and rotten or inedible fruit. And if the conditions persist, it may mean the destruction of tree…but not always.
This is where God’s grace is important. We as the tree called to produce good and abundant fruit can at times fall short. We can allow the contagion of sin to begin to poison the fruit of life we are called to be to others and if we persist in the sin we will die. But in God’s grace we can be healed and nurtured back to be once more the fruitful tree of abundance where the blessing we share give life to others as we grow as one family together.
What is important to remember is while we are all called to produce abundant of good fruit, each of us, whether apples or pears, oranges or kiwis, the varieties of gifts is more than is imaginable in the blessing of God’s abundance and mercy.
God Bless Fr. Mark.