Uprooted Religion

Imagine your parents gift to you a tree from a nursery. They deliver the tree to your front yard, its roots wrapped in burlap. “Thank you,” you say to them, “how lovely. And look! Its leaves are beginning to bloom! I love it. Thank you.”

Now imagine that months go by. Your parents call and ask if the tree has begun to bear fruit. You reply that it hasn’t, but that you’re looking forward to when it does. Then they ask where you planted it and you reply, “Oh, we haven’t planted it, actually. It’s still sitting where you had it delivered, and its roots are still in burlap.”

Obviously, your parents are going to say, “You have to plant it in the soil! If you don’t plant it in the soil, from which it receives its life, it will die.” You will have two options. Enjoy it for the rest of its short life, until it dies. Or plant it, that it might continue to live, and to bear fruit.

Judaism was withering in the hearts of many of the Jews at the time of Christ. They knew about their religion, but they did not love God. They used words like “Exodus” and “Passover” and “temple” all the time. But they were uprooted from the events that gave birth to them. Their faith was diluted during the exile, then despaired under the Roman occupation. They were forgetting their identity.

In a similar way, Christianity is withering in the hearts of many Christians today. We know about our religion, but do not love God. We use words like “Lent” and “Easter” and “church” all the time. But we’re uprooted from the events that gave birth to these mysteries. We’re diluted by worldly pleasures, and despairing under the architects of secularization. We are forgetting our identity.

But God is good; the limits of His mercy have not been set. He has ways of renewing every generation. He used the Persian King, Cyrus, in the time of Jeremiah, and the Pharisee, Nicodemus, during the time of Christ. And even now, God can raise up saints for our children to remind them of what our religion means.

And how will the saints do it? By attracting others. Saints are those who were bold enough to plant the Faith (this gifted tree) in their own hearts, allowing us to see their hearts begin to bear fruits of patience and generosity and joy, and they inspire us to plant that Tree of Life in our own hearts, even now, in the soil of a living relationship with God through the Church. +