Build Your Foundation Today

The gospel categorically talks about good trees and bad trees, good foundations and bad foundations (Luke 6:43-49). Categorising things and people as good and bad, white and black by limited beings like us is too simplistic and unfair. Life is more complex than what our senses can perceive. So we leave the judging to the omniscient one.

Modern humans believe in change and becoming. It is right to say that a human is not a noun—fixed and unchanging—but rather a verb, meaning "he/she is becoming..." We all have the possibility of conversion, change, etc., but the point that Jesus brings us is an important and frightening one: that without warning we may be called to bear fruit, without warning we may be hit by a storm. Then what would become of us?

Delaying change is refusing to change. Imagine that you are at a beach or on a riverbank and you find a child being washed away by the waters. You are called forth to act, but you do not know how to swim; your learning to swim in the future would have no value to this situation. Our fruits are demanded of us at an unexpected time; the foundation on which we stand is challenged at an unexpected time. There is no tomorrow for fruit bearing; there is no tomorrow for building better foundations, for the need is today, the storm is today. Nobody can change tomorrow and save today; so change now. Elsewhere we find Jesus cursing a fig tree that did not have fruit, and the gospel also adds that it was not the season for figs. That fig tree is a metaphor for human fruit bearing, and for human fruit bearing there is no "in season" and "out of season." It is now or never. Those demanding figs today and condemning its leafy existence would come tomorrow seeking leaves, and then your abundance of fruit will make no sense. Existence is complex; every day has its own struggles and demands.

One of my senior confrères, Augustine Pinto OFM, used to speak about an inner spiritual and moral bankruptcy. When spiritual, intellectual, or moral fruits are demanded of us, we look into our spiritual, intellectual, or moral account and find nothing to draw out. Today goes by without fruits, and tomorrow would have its own demands. That we are able to rise to the demands of the occasion is fruitfulness.

I love ideas, thoughts, and philosophy. Some modern ideas and thoughts about human possibilities and potentials take us for a ride. An idea is lifeless if it is not used. It sometimes takes us for a ride like a carrot hung in front of a donkey. The "carrot and stick" idiom is a manipulative method of persuasion—a method of persuasion using both reward (the carrot) and punishment (the stick) to make an animal move. This metaphor illustrates how a tantalising but just-out-of-reach reward can motivate a person or animal to work towards it, even if the ultimate prize is unattainable.

How it works: Motivation: A carrot or other desirable treat is dangled on a stick in front of a donkey. Action: The donkey, wanting the carrot, moves forward to try and reach it. Control: The handler moves the carrot further along, leading the donkey in a desired direction without it realising it's being controlled. Here a reward is offered for compliance and a penalty is threatened for disobedience. Enticement represents how people can be motivated by incentives or promises of a desirable outcome, even if those outcomes are not guaranteed. Sometimes ideas and philosophies can be an enticement. We hope, we wait; but what we are waiting for is taking us for a ride. The donkey's pursuit (some times waiting) of the unobtainable carrot can also represent manipulation, where someone is led to perform a task under the guise of a reward that they may never fully receive.

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SPRINGBOARDS and WALKING STICKS

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