Friars Corner: Bearing fruit 30-, 60-, 100-fold for the kingdom of God. Alleluia!

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Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65:10-14; Romans 8:18-2; Matthew 13:1-9

We begin a new feature this month, the Book of the Month. This book is by a young Catholic evangelist, Matthew Kelly. It is The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. It fits in with the themes these weeks of bearing more fruit for the kingdom of God. Dynamic Catholics have basically four characteristics:

a) They have met Jesus and have a daily personal prayer life,

b) They study something about our faith each week,

c) They generously support their parishes and d) they talk to others about their faith in Jesus Christ. That sounds also like the Cursillo Movement.

The first reading today from Isaiah tells us that God’s creative words and plans come to earth and are not to return to him empty but should bear abundant fruit. God has the positive plan. The question for us is whether we will cooperate with his plan. Has the grace of Jesus made us productive for his kingdom? Our hope, as St. Paul speaks about in the Second Reading, is that we are awaiting the transformation of our human body to be like that of our risen and glorified Jesus Christ.

As Catholics we belong to the organization that does the most amount of daily good in the world. By becoming more dynamic and fruitful we can help Jesus change the world. We are his heart and hands bringing his love to others. Amen. Alleluia!

Jesus taught the crowd in parables (stories). Those closest to him got the secrets. How much of the secrets do you have? Wherever that is, you don’t have to stay there. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you Jesus personally. Then ask him to increase the nutrients in your soil, whole being, so that you can bear more fruit for his kingdom.

Dynamic Catholics comprise about 7% of each parish. If we can increase that to 1% more or, praise God, to 14% , we could literally change our families, towns, states, this nation and the world. Do you want to try with God’s grace to do that with us?

Jesus said to his closest followers: "Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear." There is a beautiful hymn some of us sing by Robert Call:

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, To reach out and touch him and say that we love him. Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.

Let us together sing this song from deep in our heart. Jesus will open up the floodgates of "living water," John 4:14, flowing from his throne in heaven. It can flow in us from our baptism. Then we can touch hundreds with his love.

Have a great week and get Matthew’s book, DynamicCatholic.com