THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Seventh Sunday after Pentecost 31 July 2011

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

In today’s gospel, our Lord warns us against false prophets – “by their fruits you shall know them.” St. Paul tells us in the epistle for today to consider the fruits of our works. When we are in sin our works produce death, but when we are in the state of grace, our works produce life in the soul.

In a sense our works are prophets of what fruit we may expect to reap in the future. To most of those in the world they cannot distinguish works done in the state of grace as opposed to those done in the state of sin, but God sees the distinction very clearly. It is God who will reward these works with their appropriate fruit.

On the surface all the works look the same. Even the worldly fruits of the labor look very much the same. After all, the laborer is paid exactly the same regardless if he is in the state of grace or in the state of sin. The worldly employer does not care about his soul and therefore never looks into it.

The sinner is not immediately struck by lightning so he often assumes that he got away with something. Life continues on as if nothing were wrong. No one treats him any differently. These works done in an evil state have become false prophets. They are dressed in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Only God and the person’s conscience know of what is lurking underneath the appearance of good works.

Those in the state of sin can see but pretend not to see and carry on with a facade. They attempt to badger their conscience into silence and submission. Not only are they attempting to hide from themselves the inevitable true fruit of their labors (death), but they are making it ever more bitter and painful.

The most dangerous of all the false prophets therefore is our own selves. St. Augustine tells us that it would be nearly impossible for others to deceive us if we did not first deceive ourselves. We must pray that God will show us to ourselves as He sees us. In this light we will be able to make a correct judgment concerning the fruits of our labors. With this knowledge we can set about perfecting our labors and therefore the fruit that will come from them.

From this worldly perspective all our works look pretty much the same, but our state of soul and our intentions greatly change the reality of these works. St. Paul tells us that we should do all things for the love of God. It does not matter if we eat or fast, work or play, etc. as long as we do all things for God.

A good intention makes all the difference in the world. The same work, the same material effort is put in but the fruit is completely different depending on the intention with which it is done. God even goes so far as to tell us that the intention is greater than the deed itself. One who is angry with his brother is already guilty of murder; one who lusts after a woman is already guilty of adultery, etc. It is what is within the heart that God is interested in.

We must therefore learn to stop seeing with worldly eyes our own material works and the temporal material fruit that is produced as if that were all there is to it. There are eternal fruits to our labors and we can only judge of what they are by looking into our hearts and judging the motives, and dispositions of our hearts. These are the fruits that will allow us to distinguish the true prophets from the false ones.

Let us stop deceiving ourselves so that we can truly judge our own works and fruits. In turn, we will no longer be deceived by the world or by evil spirits that are always tempting us to judge from the physical or material appearance of things. A simple humility and acknowledgement of our own lack of good works will guard us readily against the deceits of those around us.