Father Dominic Emmanuel

The season of mangoes, the king of fruits, is in full swing and though that of jamuns is on wane, hopefully most people have enjoyed these fruits to the hilt. The lucky ones must have relished apricots and plums, too, besides the regular fruits.
Apart from a few basic things such as the cost, the sweet/sourness, the size and colour of fruits, one pays little or no attention to its other aspects. One hardly cares, for instance, about the variety and the place from where they come, type of trees that produce them and so on. But should one really be bothered about these details?
It is fascinating to look into what it takes for a fruit to become delicious and, therefore, sought-after in the market. What increases the demand for a fruit is its quality which depends largely on the type of tree that produces it. But then, the type of tree alone is not sufficient. Did the farmer also prepare the soil well with enough and right manure in it? Did he water the plant well when it was growing up? Did it receive plentiful sunlight which is a key to maximising fruit production? And what about timely pruning, grafting and so on? All these things matter.
Curiously, Jesus, both in his sermons and in his conversations, often used images from nature, of sheep and shepherds, birds of the air, lilies in the field, fruit on a fig tree, vineyard and so on. He then applied those to real life situations of his listeners who could then more easily relate to them to their own lives.
Thus, once while cautioning people against impostors, cheats, charlatans and such, Jesus told them, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit… (Mathew 7:15-18)”.
Psychologists tell us that human personality, based on innate or inherent qualities, is more or less formed by the age of five, though they hasten to add that social environment also plays an important role in one’s character formation. True, there is very little one can do about the environment one grows in and even less about what one inherits through one’s genes. These are a given.
I, nevertheless, believe that since we are made, as the Bible tells us, in the image and likeness of God, we are all fundamentally noble and continue aiming at achieving greater perfection in our life. In the words of Jesus, “Be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect”. This, of course, does not mean that there are not, amongst us, people who are less than perfect and who, due to various circumstances, might have landed in trouble. But most of them are trying desperately to get out of the situations they have landed themselves in.
This is where the simile of the tree and its fruits comes in handy for us. In order for a tree to produce good fruit the gardener has to make sure that he manures, prunes, waters and takes good care of it so that the tree grows to be a fruit-bearing tree. One’s personality can be distinguished when one takes good care of one’s character the way a gardener takes care of a tree.
Pruning and removing evil tendencies and unhealthy desires from one’s personality can help one produce good fruits. Our actions, based on spiritual and positive human values, function as manure, water and sunlight to for our personality which begins not only to shine in public but which, like delicious fruits, also begins to appeal to people we interact with, both at home and in public places. People then want to associate and mingle more with us.
And, of course, in addition to our own efforts, the more we allow God and His Spirit to guide our lives through meditation and prayer, the tastier fruits our actions will yield. That is why St. Paul in his epistle to Galatians, writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23)”.
These fruits, as also the fruits on a natural tree, do not appear overnight but will blossom as we make sincere efforts to live each day in obedience and faith to the God or Goddess, our Ishtdeva, we believe in and worship from our heart, always remembering the old adage, “God helps those who help themselves”.

— Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religions, is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He
was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award 2008 by the Government of India.