Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm

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Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God
and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:18-22

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John makes it so clear and simple, doesn’t he? It’s what we do that matters, not what we say. Jesus said the same thing once when he pointed out a tree to his disciples and said, “By their fruits, you will know them..”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s take a good look at our lives, and the lives of those we allow to influence us. Are we like trees bearing good fruit – good deeds of charity, peace, forgiveness, mercy, honesty, respect, encouragement, hope, and fidelity?

If our deeds reflect the opposite of these virtues, John says they condemn us. He calls us to Gospel faithfulness in what we do as well as what we say.

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Poetry:

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.

William Shakespeare

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Music: Good Tree – Hillbilly Thomists (I thought these guys were fascinating! See more about them on their website: https://www.hillbillythomists.com/about)

You can’t gather grapes from a bramble bush
Or pick a fig from thorns
What I’d like to be
Oh, to be a good tree

Some fall in the rocks, on the beaten path
Some sink into great soil
From a tiny seed
Oh, to a good tree

Like a cedar high
And mustard wide
Where all the birds of the air can hide
Find rest inside

Oh, a good tree
The beetle bites
The black rot strikes
From the inside
Have your enemies

Oh, if you’re a good tree
High and dry
Some branches die
From time to time
A prune’s required
If you wanna be
Oh, a good tree

Even when I’m old
I still will be
Still full of sap, still green
That’s what I want to be
Oh, to be a good tree

By Your word
The dark is light
The tree of death becomes the tree of life
So let it be
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree