Sharing Life Experience

by Joan Mitchell, CSJ

This summer, six years after my sister and her husband planted a Honeycrisp apple tree in their yard, the tree produced two of the sweet, crunchy apples. Is the soil the problem? Maybe too little sunlight or too few bees to pollinate the blossoms? What will this year’s crop bring?

The fig tree in Sunday’s gospel has produced no fruit. The owner wants to cut it down. The gardener wants to fertilize it another year.

In Israel a fig tree is as common as an apple tree. A fig tree and a grape vine — every family should have one. Ripe figs are sweet and wonderful. But what to do with a tree that bears no fruit?

The season of Lent invites us to take the question personally. What to do with those of us who bear no fruit in the world?

Our fruit can be unique to each of us. Family is the circle where most of us take root, blossom, and bear fruit in the love and support we give to one another. College classes involve us in coming through on group projects, listening and learning from others, and articulating our own experience and thoughts. Curiosity and creativity lead us to imagine ending hunger, fairer elections, healthy prenatal care worldwide, a business of one’s own.

We are learning Earth cannot support our western lifestyle. We are endangering future generations.

Our city has new waste containers to help us recycle. We can recycle plastics and paper. We can compost our potato peels and apple cores. Every time I take another sack of food waste to the bin, I recommit to less waste. It’s a contemporary call to fasting.

I have to waste less food, grow some of my own, recycle and repurpose, walk more, drive less, take the bus and train. Maybe keeping track of what I contribute to our landfills will help me change my buying habits.

  • What is a practical way you want to bear fruit in our world?
Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0