Many sayings of Jesus or phrases from the Bible have become common usage in the English language. One of them is Jesus' observation (in today's gospel reading) that every tree can be known by its fruit. Namely, that fruits belong to and come from their own specific trees, and that the quality of the fruit will tell you how healthy or not each tree is. He was really talking about human beings, and how our words and actions reveal our inner selves. What people say, and the way they say it, already reveals quite a lot about their personality, their character, interests, relationships and so on. But we know also that words can be empty and deceptive, and not in tune with what we do or what we believe, with the way we act and behave.

It's easy to say "Lord, Lord"; and then ignore what the same Lord asks us to do. It's easy to talk about love but actually to love someone is shown in the behaviour, attitudes, and in what a person does for the loved one. Jesus said He wanted His disciples to go and bear fruit. The fruits of faith, and of prayer, are the lives we live, our integrity and honesty and all those gifts which ultimately are gifts of the Spirit - just like faith and prayer themselves are. But we've got the responsibility to nurture and care for the sapling tree, to prune and protect it while it is growing to shelter the ripening fruit, so that it ripens into full maturity, for the glory of God.