Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/130

 “ good;" but the goodness of these fruits is manifest, because by such fruits the kingdom of God is gained; and the trees of Paradise give such fruit. Rom. xiv. 17, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Thirdly, He commends it by its constancy of fruit bearing, “ brings forth.” It is of the present time in which it is shewn that it is ever in the act of bearing fruit, Jer. xvii. 7, 8, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is; for he shall be as a tree planted by the water . . . and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Ezek. xlvii. 12, “ And by the river upon the bank thereof, this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat; whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.” Of these three, Rev. xxii. 2, “ On either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Behold the preciousness of the fruits, for the just eat them and they live for ever. “ Twelve manner of fruits ”—their multiplicity. “ Every month ”—behold their continuity of bearing.

II. Three evils are attributed to the second tree—(1) mortification of the fruits of the wicked—“ fruit,” for in this word, which is spoken in the plural, Our Lord remarks that the wicked man, who is here called “a corrupt tree,” bears many evil fruits, which are evil deeds. But the Apostle enumerates seventeen fruits of the evil tree, Gal. v. 19, 20, 21, which are the “ works of the flesh,” and “ they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (2) The perversity of the fruits, “evil,” S. Matt. xii. 35, “An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things,” (3) The assiduity of working evil, “brings forth,” Hos. iv. 10, Vulg., “They have committed fornication, and have not ceased.”

III. About the third tree, it is to be noted, that there are three kinds of trees which bring forth no fruit—(1) Which makes leaves without flowers : these are they which have words without works, S. Matt. xxi. 19, “He saw a fig-tree and found nothing thereon but leaves only.” Our Lord cursed it, “ How soon is the fig-tree withered away.” (2) Which has flowers without fruits : these are they which bring forth