Jesus Christ, the Apple-tree

I recently discovered this photograph of an apple that looks as if it has been hand-painted. I was taught as a boy that God is all-knowing and all powerful. I like to add: God is all-imagination.

I'm thinking of the carol we might hear now that we've stepped into December: Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree. The poem verses may have been intended as a carol, though it seems to have been around a good while before appearing in church hymnals. And though the lyrics make no reference to Christ's birth (Mary and Joseph, angels and shepherds) somehow it has found its way into the repertoire of more familiar Christmas carols. 

Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil
here I will sit and rest awhile
I'm weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

An apple is spherical, like a little globe. And for the delight apples give us, they are images of total joy, joy even to laughter. Doesn't the world need laughter: kind laughter, the laughter of delight? Joy to the World is another carol we'll be hearing and singing. And if joy for the world is an angel-task, it's all the more a human one. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Catholics were known to be the world's joy-restorers. We've got our work cut out for us, a work that needs to begin in-house. Pope Francis has said as much in speaking recently to the seventeen new cardinals in Rome.

"How many situations of uncertainty and suffering are sown by this growing animosity between peoples, between us! Yes, between us, within our communities, our priests, our meetings. The virus of polarization and animosity permeates our way of thinking, feeling and acting. We are not immune to this and we need to take care lest such attitudes find a place in our hearts, because this would be contrary to the richness and universality of the church..."

In heraldry (the symbols of flags and coats of arms) apples are symbols of rejuvenation and fullness of life.  Rejuvenation comes from the Latin words re = again and juvenis = young. Imagine that - Catholics as the ones who rejuvenate or help the world to feel young and alive again! Jesus said:  "I have come that they may have life - life in all its fullness." John 10:10 

Oh Jesus, make us young again, 

young at heart,

for all the world, Jesus!

Fill us with delight,

and awe and wonder

before everything that is beautiful,

 good and true. 

In October ~ Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

It's apple season in many parts of the country. The retreat house is just over the New York - Pennsylvania border and so there are apple orchards, barns and stands everywhere. There is a lovely hymn which calls Jesus an apple tree.

The lyrics to that poem/hymn are 18th century American. The later tune is sometimes found among Christmas music collections, though neither has anything to do with Christmas. Rather than just presenting the thoughts of others surrounding the hymn I might offer some new ideas of my own.

Jesus as apple tree, is metaphor of course. A metaphor is a symbolic way of speaking: two things are so closely identified with each other that by symbol they are made to look as if they were one and the same. 

• She cried an ocean of tears.
• He died of a broken heart.
• It's raining cats and dogs.
• You're the light of my life. 

But why call Jesus an apple tree? Human beings knew to eat apples 6000 years before the birth of Jesus. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," we say. Eating apples is a healthy thing to do. And people who knowingly or unknowingly follow Jesus' simple rule of loving others tend to be healthier and happier. I say unknowingly because there are people of course who are loving but who make no identification with Jesus. Indeed Jesus didn't invent love or a rule to follow the way of love - but he did bring love forward and surely modeled it as no one ever has before. Jesus is good for your health.

Apples are fragrant. The flowers of an apple tree in spring are wonderfully fragrant. Some people put an apple to their noses, inhaling the scent before biting into it. Even the wood of the tree itself has a lovely aroma. Now I'm thinking of that other fragrance which surrounds every Catholic Christian ~ the Chrism of our Baptism and Confirmation - and for the priest, his ordination. 

Chrism is consecrated once a year, just before Easter. And part of its blessing is the adding of fragrances, so when it is applied to the top of our heads, foreheads or hands we smell very nice indeed. The symbolism is: that we would leave behind us the lovely fragrance of Christ wherever we go in this life. 

Perhaps the most successful way of creating new apple trees is by grafting: a branch from one kind of apple tree is cut and attached to the trunk or main stem of another. Oh, to be grafted onto Christ - that his very life would careen in me and that I would be fruitful in his love. And what would that love look like?

"Have no fear of human sin. Love people even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Care and is the highest love on earth. Love all of God's creation. The whole and every grain of sand on it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love." Fyodor Dostoyevsky ~ The Brothers Karamazov