Gospel Commentary – September 13, 2025

Today’s Gospel text can really boost our self-esteem. And it can even lead us to judge and condemn our brothers and sisters. That phrase “by their fruits you will know them,” which has become the ordinary way of expressing the central idea of these words of Jesus, has too often been used to condemn others. We see the fruit and convince ourselves that if the fruit is bad, then the roots must be bad too. There is nothing more to be done. No point in wasting time or effort. That tree—that person—has no remedy.

But neither Jesus nor the Kingdom work that way. For God the Father, no child is definitively lost. And who are we to determine that the roots are damaged forever?

Maybe we think we are already in a position of superiority, ready to judge and measure others because we have built our house—our faith, our life, our convictions—on solid rock, and no matter what winds or floods come, our house will stand firm. But the truth is, water always finds a crack, and even in the best-built houses dampness appears over the years. And that without needing any great floods or storms. The reality is that our house, our faith—like every house—needs ongoing maintenance.

Today’s Gospel text invites us to come down from our pedestal, not to think of ourselves as superheroes of the faith. This passage is like a bath of humility. We are on the way, together with our brothers and sisters. We are building the house of our life, and if we look back at our own history, we can see that what we have built is far from perfect. We are going to need much mercy and patience from God to gradually improve what we are building. And there’s nothing more to say: let’s apply that same mercy and patience to our brothers and sisters—just as God does with us.