Pruned for Growth: Embracing God’s Work in Us This Lent

Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit” (Luke 6:43).

If we desire to bear good fruit, we must first cultivate our inner lives—pruning away what is unhealthy and nurturing what is virtuous. Too often, we focus on external factors as the primary obstacles to our spiritual growth: difficult circumstances, the behavior of others, or challenges beyond our control. While these struggles are real, Jesus’ words shift our attention inward, reminding us that the fruit we produce is ultimately a reflection of the state of our hearts.

Just as a tree cannot blame the weather for its lack of fruitfulness, we cannot attribute our spiritual stagnation solely to external conditions. The good or bad fruit we bear is rooted in what we allow to take hold within us. If we wish to produce abundant and lasting fruit, we must be willing to undergo pruning—an often uncomfortable process but one that is necessary for growth and renewal.

The Call to Prune Ourselves for Lent

Lent is a season of purification and renewal, a time to examine our hearts and invite God to shape us. It is an opportunity to remove distractions, sinful tendencies, and attachments that hinder our relationship with Him. At the same time, it calls us to nourish virtues that align our hearts more closely with Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI expresses this beautifully in Spe Salvi:

The human being needs purification and maturation. He needs the contradiction in his soul to be burned away. He needs the compulsion of falsehood to be eliminated from him. What remains is the fully realized human being, the human being who is no longer subject to contradictions and who, by being fully open to God, is fully open to his fellow human beings.” (Spe Salvi, 47)

Just as a tree must be pruned to bear good fruit, we, too, must be purified—removing sin, selfishness, and falsehood so that we may fully open ourselves to God’s grace and become who we are called to be.

Trusting the Gardener

Pruning is not a punishment but an act of love and careful cultivation. A skilled gardener does not cut away branches arbitrarily or out of cruelty but with precision and purpose—removing what is dead, diseased, or unfruitful so that new life can flourish. Likewise, God’s work in our lives is always for our good, even when it requires sacrifice, discomfort, or letting go of things we once held dear. When He prunes us, He is not diminishing us but preparing us to grow stronger, healthier, and more fruitful in His grace.

This process often feels painful because it challenges our attachments, our pride, and the areas where we have become spiritually complacent. But pruning is necessary if we are to bear fruit that endures. If we refuse to let go of what stifles our spiritual growth—sinful habits, worldly distractions, or self-centered attitudes—then we risk becoming like the withered branches that Jesus warns will be thrown into the fire (John 15:6). Yet when we submit to God’s refining work, we open ourselves to an abundance of grace, allowing Him to shape us into true disciples whose lives radiate His love, truth, and mercy.

This Lent, let us embrace the pruning process with trust and humility. May we surrender to the hands of the Divine Gardener, who knows exactly where to cut and when to cultivate. As we allow Him to work in us, may we remember that the fruit we bear is not for ourselves alone but for the glory of God and the good of others. Like a flourishing tree whose branches provide shade, shelter, and nourishment to those around it, may our lives become a witness of Christ’s transformative power, bearing fruit that brings renewal to the world.

–Sebastian Abbinanti