Rooted and Built Up in Him Believers draw life, strength, and stability from their union with Christ. Like a tree planted by streams of water, they receive nourishment that enables endurance and fruitfulness (Psalm 1:3). Christ is also the only foundation upon which a life of lasting spiritual growth can stand; no other foundation can be laid (1 Corinthians 3:11). The Christian life rests not on human wisdom, religious effort, or cultural approval, but on the crucified and risen Lord (Colossians 2:7). Every time I read the above words from St. Paul, the image of being rooted in Christ stays with me for hours. It is a rich metaphor that offers endless room for meditation, especially when one struggles with distractions in prayer. Even when a person has a deep prayer life, there are days when the mind resembles a wasp's nest, filled with constant buzzing, agitation, and unease. This is normal. Intrusive thoughts can often be quietly released and allowed to pass, while at other times they may be pointing toward some wound within us that seeks healing and God's gentle attention. There are also days when we feel an aversion to prayer itself. During such times, the image of our souls being rooted in Christ Jesus can give us the courage to persevere. We begin to understand that prayer is sustained not by our strength or determination, but by grace. Just as the roots of a tree continue to draw nourishment from the soil even during storms and drought, our souls remain sustained by Christ even when we feel dry, distracted, or discouraged. Roots, to me, are works of art. I enjoy growing plants in water, and when new roots begin to appear, I am always fascinated by their beauty and complexity. They remind me that each of us is a unique creation of God, fashioned with a particular root system and nourished in ways known fully only to Him. Though our journeys differ, we draw our life from the same source. Perhaps that is one lesson hidden within St. Paul's image. The deeper our roots grow into Christ, the less we are shaken by the changing circumstances of life. Rooted in Him, we can weather seasons of doubt, dryness, loss, and confusion, trusting that beneath the surface God's grace is always at work, nourishing us, strengthening us, and drawing us ever closer to Himself. -Br-MD
And it is due, not only to our marvelous God, but to the lasting fruit provided through Christ and His Church via her sacraments.
I am reading a psalm a day before Mass at the moment as part of my efforts to read a chapter of the Bible every day. I was a bit annoyed at first at being kind of stuck in the Psalms as they go one forever. But the psalms speak so much to my everyday situation that they have become a real joy and inspiration. I remember reading psalm one a few weeks back: Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. It brought me right back to the 1960's and the era of the Civil Rights Marches in the USA and Ireland and the National Anthem of Civil Rights, 'We shall overcome' and the words, 'Just like the tree that's planted by the waterside , we shall overcome'. Another way of saying this is that suffering people would overcome by simply enduring. This reminds me of the words of St Paul that suffering breeds perserverance. Romans 5:3-5 3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. The Blacks suffered a lot but it meant when they picked up and read the psalms they were not simply words they became alive. So much so that it turned into music that sprung from a suffering heart. The tree by the waterside reminds me too of my own parents. Simple Catholics who lived a simple Catholic Faith and raised ten children through a terrible war and imprisonment and our house being constantly raided and wrecked by British soldiers as Catholics in our own part of the World sought simple Civil Rights. They were both so rooted in simple Catholic Faith. They really could not be moved. I always recall when my mother was dying of cancer and I asked her if her sufferings ever caused her to doubt God? 'She looked at me as though I were crazy and said, 'But that would be a mad thing to do!' That generation could be summed up in the words, 'Like the tree beside the waterside'. It reminds me too of something I have been thinking of recently and that is going to Mass everyday. Back home in Ireland the Church was a ten minute walk away and typically there were at least 50 other people there every day. Here in Spain I have to drive for a half an hour and there are only three or four people. So I have to make more of an effort in many ways. Going to mass has become more of an event so to speak. But it reminds me of how we have to be like the tree beside the water in so many ways. But the bottom line is that I do not go to Mass every day because I feel I have to but because I have the most, terrible hunger for it. A day without the Mass is a day with the most terrible searing pain and emptiness in it... So indeed I can see the tree of my heart has put down deep, deep roots in the waters of the Holy Spirit.
