Fruitfulness: A Gift from God

In today’s first reading, Hosea 14: 2-10, the prophet says to us: “Because of me you bear fruit.”  It is so easy, when we are successful, are doing well, are thriving, to attribute our “fruitfulness” to ourselves.  Without even realizing it, we may be looking to ourselves to be our own Savior and to be the Savior of others.  “Here, I will do that.”  “Oh, sure, no problem.”  “Call me if you get into trouble.”  We may say “yes” to everything and anything that is asked of us and then wonder where our resentment and anger are originating. 

A time will come for all of us when we will realize that God alone is God, that God alone saves, that God alone is all-powerful, all-knowing, ubiquitous and omnipresent.  The time will come for all of us when we have no “horses to mount” (compare today’s first reading); and, as a nation, no more drones to launch, no more military muscle to flex.  Yes, in the words of the prophet Hosea, the time will come for every nation, every country, every person  when each will no longer say  “‘our god’ to the work of our hands” (Hosea 14: 2-10).

Lord, may I have the humility to come to the realization that you alone are God, you alone are Savior, and that I am a creature dependent upon you; and that my fruitfulness comes from you, though I certainly am involved in the fact that I bear fruit that will last. That fruit is love, forgiveness, joy, peace.