Being Attractive Witnesses

“In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.” Jeremiah 17:8

These were the final words of last Sunday’s 2nd Reading at Mass, and they have lingered with me deeply ever since. 

Earlier, Jeremiah said that the one “who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord,” is “like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream.” Because of this, “it fears not the heat when it comes.”  The stream, of course, is the Holy Spirit, the very life of God that gushes through a believer’s body (cf. John 7:38). The heat is trial, of whatever kind.

These words seem especially timely for us and our mission as disciples, both individually and as the Church. These past two years now have indeed been a time of “drought,” of trial and testing and who knows what’s coming up ahead. Yet, the Word of God is reminding us that part of our mission as disciples of Jesus is to make abundantly evident the massive, indescribable, life-changing difference knowing, loving, trusting and hoping in God makes.

Sticking with Jeremiah’s imagery, we can easily imagine those trees who, for whatever reason, are far from and unconnected to the stream, parched and withering away under the heat, looking with jealousy at the trees that continue to bear fruit and who are green all year round. Such “trees” are all around us! How many people in our daily lives are in distress, parched, dry, anxious, disconnected, angry and more?

As disciples, we should be as noticeably different, attractive and enticing to those around us who do not know or hope in the Lord as green, fruit-bearing trees are to those who are dying due to lack of water. The difference between green trees and dying trees is obvious! Are we? Am I? 

Do our parishes stand out from the world around us, are they truly places where people experience the life, hope, peace, calm, and love that can only come from being connected to the streams of living water? Or do we look like the world at large? We are to be walking, working models of the life, freedom, joy and peace that comes from trusting and hoping in the Lord. And these models stand out all the more powerfully in the year of drought and the time of distress. 

Let us ask the Lord in these days to shine through us, to help us to live differently - noticeably differently - from those who do not yet know, trust and hope in Him. And all so that our lives will attract others not to ourselves but to God, the source of abundant life.