by our union with Christ. We only bear fruit if we are living as disciples.
The Wild Olive and Root of Israel
Another powerful image from Scripture is that of Gentile Christians being “wild olive” branches grafted on to the root stock of Israel in baptism (see Romans 11:13-24). The fruit of the olive tree was precious in the ancient Mediterranean because olives were the single most important food item, used not only for cooking and healing but also as a cosmetic, as soap, and as the most important source of light.
In the ancient world, branches of cultivated, fruit-bearing olive trees were often grafted onto a rootstock of “wild” olive. The wild olive root would never bear edible fruit itself but would supply the “good,” cultivated branches with nutrients so they could bear fruit. No ancient Greek farmer would graft a wild, non-fruit-bearing branch onto cultivated rootstock because no edible olives would be produced!
But once again, the impossible is possible in the Kingdom. We wild, unproductive Gentile branches do not bring fruitfulness to the tree of Israel. Rather, the tree makes our unfruitful branches fruitful by transforming them with God’s life-giving supernatural power. Our spiritual “DNA” is altered by being grafted into the life of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel.
By this power of the Spirit, God’s children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us bear “the fruit of the Spirit: … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” “We live by the Spirit”; the more we renounce ourselves, the more we “walk by the Spirit.” (CCC 736, emphasis added)
If we remain “in Jesus” and Jesus in us — if that graft is being transformed by the DNA of the Vine — we will bear much fruit.
What Fruit Looks Like
There is a whole set of spiritual corollaries that go with this process of transformation through union with the Vine. If we remain in Jesus and his word and Jesus remains in us, then:
• We bear much fruit, fruit that will remain.
• We show that we are disciples.
• We keep his commandments.
• We remain in his love.
• It brings the Father glory.
• Jesus’ joy will be in us.
• Our joy will be complete.
• Our prayers will be answered (see John 15:1-16).
That sounds like a great deal to me. In meditating on this passage, I was especially struck by verse sixteen, which linked bearing fruit to having our prayers answered. Obviously, prayer itself is enormously powerful and can change the course of history. John Wesley famously said that “God does nothing except in answer to believing prayer.”5 But I am also sure that one of the reasons that our prayers will be answered is that the fruit you bear will turn out to be the answer to someone else’s prayers!
Faith and Fruit
The root stock of the Vine and the cultivated olive are full of the life and sap of the Holy Spirit. And that life and sap is truly and reliably given to us by the means Jesus bestowed on the Church: the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit given to the baptized, the sacraments, the liturgy, the Scriptures, and many other gifts he has given us in and through his Body. That is why the Catechism says of the liturgy:
A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them, so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. (CCC 1153, emphasis added)
Our spiritual openness and eagerness to enter into the obedience of faith is essential. Evangelization, personal faith, and conversion that leads to the lifelong journey of intentional discipleship changes our interior disposition, cultivates our spiritual soil, and makes it rich enough to bear much fruit.
How important is fruit-bearing to the drama of redemption? I was amazed to realize that St. Paul described it as one of the central purposes of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead:
In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:4, emphasis added)
Fruit-bearing is the primary indicator that everything that Christ accomplished for us is actually reaching us, penetrating, and changing us. Bearing fruit is the sign that salvation has come to our house and is actually occurring in our lives.
No wonder Pope St. John Paul II said:
Bearing fruit is an essential demand of life in Christ and life in the Church. The person who does not bear fruit does not remain in communion: “Each branch of mine that bears no fruit, he (my Father) takes away” (Jn 15:2).6
That is also why he reminded us:
People are approached in liberty by God who calls everyone to grow, develop and bear fruit. A person cannot put off a response nor cast off personal responsibility in the matter. The solemn words of Jesus refer to this exalted and serious responsibility: “If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned” (Jn 15:6).7
Obstacles to Fruit-Bearing
Dogmatic theologian Ludwig Ott summed up the interior dynamic of fruit-bearing this way: “the subjective disposition of the recipient is … the indispensable pre-condition of the communication of grace.”8
Infants cannot put obstacles in the way of receiving grace, but older children, teens, and adults certainly can. The obstacles that can block the ultimate fruitfulness of valid sacraments include:
• Lack of personal faith.
• Lack of understanding.
• Lack of a desire to live a new life.
• Lack of repentance.
In his classic book, A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist, Abbot Vonier uses a powerful image to convey how obstacles can block the living impact of graces that we have objectively received:
[It is] a favorite idea of St. Thomas, that faith is truly a contact with Christ…. Without this contact of faith, we are dead unto Christ, the stream of his life passes us by without entering into us, as a rock in the midst of a river remains unaffected by the turbulent rush of waters…. Till the contact of faith be established, the great redemption has not become our redemption; the things of Christ are not ours in any true sense.9
Catholic Identity and Fruitfulness
It is important that we understand that what is sometimes called “Catholic identity” is not necessarily an expression of living faith or discipleship. In an ideal world, personal faith and discipleship would always form the center of one’s Catholic
