The Word Bears Fruit

 If I could be granted only one wish, I would ask that my children, my family, everyone I know and care about, and those far off whom I have yet to know, would hear or read and absorb the Word of God.  

Jesus told many parables about the Word of God as a seed that bears fruit, and my experience bears out the analogy.  The fourth chapter of Mark contains two parables back to back about "the kingdom of God," but the application is the same as in the parables of the sower and the seed (the Word of God):

A man scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, thought he does not know how.  All by itself the soil produces grain -- first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

In the parables of Matthew, Jesus explains: The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man....what was sown on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.  He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.

No one has to take my word for the effect of Scripture in one's life.  St. Ignatius of Loyola wrote about "discernment of spirits" based on his own experience.  When he read adventures of knighthood, chivalry, romance -- all books which thrilled him -- he noticed that afterwards he was left restless, disturbed in his spirit.  When he read books about the saints, or the Life of Christ -- the only books available to him during his recuperation -- his spirit was left peaceful, joyful, and confident. He quickly came to realize that by paying attention to the effect that certain events had on his inner man, he could "bear fruit," in a way.  That is, he could become peaceful, joyful, confident, able to face the trials of life.

I have heard that someone beginning to read Scripture for the first time should start by reading the Gospel of John 7 times.  I don't know what that statement is based upon, but it's probably not a bad idea to begin with at least one reading of that Gospel, noticing what effect is produced in you as you read.

Most of us initially approach the reading of Scripture intellectually, as we would read a textbook. But St. Paul says that all Scripture is "God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness..."  When God "breathed into the nostrils of Adam," man became a living being.  When the breath of God hovered over the primeval chaos, light entered the world and began to produce life, harmony, beauty, fruitfulness.  When the breath of the Holy Spirit entered the apostles, they lost their fear and became witnesses of the Resurrection.

When we read Scripture, we enter into an encounter with the Holy Spirit, who "breathes in us the breath of Life."  I think we can trust God to breathe into us all that He breathed into creation at the beginning, all that He breathed into the apostles after the Resurrection --- life, light, confidence, joy, peace.  At first, like the farmer who sows his seed, we do not see or feel the seed producing fruit, for it does its work in secret.  But before long, we begin to see small shoots coming up in our spirits -- as Ignatius of Loyola noticed in himself. 

St. Augustine wrestled long and hard with philosophy, doctrine, the beauty of ideas, etc. but just could not surrender until he heard a child chanting a rhyme: Take up and read. Take up and read. That simple chant touched his soul and he picked up a scroll at random, just happening to open it to Romans 13:14: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  Suddenly he understood the solution to the one thing holding him back from a relationship with Jesus Christ.  He was to clothe himself with Jesus Christ!  And because Augustine picked up that scroll, the world became richer that day for all time.  The Word of God bore fruit in him, as it surely will do also in us!