Originally published at The Catholic Thing

The only time Our Lord came upon something merely flourishing, he cursed it: “In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.” (Matthew 21:18–19)

The form of the curse was that it should flourish only and never fructify.  For Our Lord, “May you simply flourish” is a curse. Since flourishing (“flowering”) is for bearing fruit, however, such a curse makes the tree wither.  

Transpose the idea to human affairs, and we might say that on the one hand there is human flourishing, and on the other, human “fructification,” and to aim to flourish without fructifying is to be subject to a divine curse. 

Then there is the parable of the tree which is not bearing fruit:

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, “Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree,

Read more...