Friends, at the sound of the word, "rotten", do you have an image of bad fruit or vegetables or does it cause you to recall a bad odor? They say that our sense of smell is the essence of memory. A rotten egg, a rotten potato, we've all smelled them and we react facially equivalent to the smell they give off. We know what rotten looks like and smells like.
In Matthew's Gospel Jesus explains in a rather humorous way that good things (fruit) do not come from bad things. He describes that we don't pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles.
"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit." (Mt 7:18)
So, does Jesus mean that we are destined to be good or bad based on our family, that if my father was a bad person I, too, will be a bad person? That sounds like it has the potential for a good cop-out! I can say that there were some traits of my own father that I choose to not emulate and others that I strive for but I can choose the virtues to attain. Plants give us either good fruit (harvest) or bad. If they are rotten as a plant then that is what they will produce. A good plant will give good fruit or harvest. We, on the other hand, have choices. We may be the product of one or two less-than-saintly parents but we are not plants. We have a conscience and can discern good from bad. We can change. We can work on the spiritually weak aspects of our lives through prayer. With a smidgen of desire on our part, the Holy Spirit works miracles.
This brings me to Irenaeus (circa 150 AD) whose Feast Day we celebrate today. Irenaeus wrote extensively against heresies (a contrary opinion or doctrine) and one of his better know tomes was entitled: "Against the Heresies." In Irenaeus' time, there was a growing movement of gnostics who were trumpeting that all matter was evil, that it was the result of a grand error, and that a select few could attain salvation through their awakening to a certain knowledge of their original divine identity.
It was Irenaeus who wrote that God has no need for us. That He has no need of anything outside of Himself. This simple phrase had tremendous meaning back in the second century and still holds meaning for us today for while the Gnostics are not a visible, known sect (as far as I know) we do have many whose philosophy is not of God. They choose to discredit God's creation and go so far as to diminish, slander, and twist by various means God's greatest creation which is humankind.
We are, as creatures, made in the image and likeness of God, good fruit that sometimes goes sour or rotten by our actions. I hold that the greatest truth of God is His mercy. We don't have to get perfect to approach Him, to pray to Him, to have a relationship with Him. He takes us as we are. He knew long ago how we would turn out, bad fruit and all yet He remains. He does not change.
We may be rotten in areas but we are welcome by the One Who created all things. We are not a number. We are the apple of His eye!
