The fruit yielders. A new name for all of you. You are a fruit yielder. Not a fruit destroyer, but a fruit yielder. One of the central teachings/understandings surrounding this famous parable of Jesus is the issue of protection. To be a successful fruit-yielder over the length of our years is to seek and be open for the spiritual protection God extends to us each day. We do not live the life of Job, where God said to Satan, “Okay, he’s yours. Test him. You can do anything you want with him except take his life.” Just the thought of such a possibility should send a shiver down our spine. Instead, the Cross of Jesus and all its meaning has removed any Old Testament possibility of God allowing the Devil free reign over us without the protection of the Spirit, his grace, his angels, and the Communion of Saints. When Jesus gave up his Spirit, our personal protection that comes down from heaven brought us from being a pure target for the enemy to being protected by the Lord’s power and grace. His death was the moment when the powers of love and protection became our closest friends. In the parable of the sower and the seed, the first three failures where the seed yields no lasting fruit, that failure results from the lack of desiring divine protection. And what a time to seek it, right now. The first 3 possibilities of seed-growth in this parable that Jesus teaches, they end in spiritual destruction. That section of the parable could be called The Parable of the Titanic, ending in disaster. What sort of disaster? The sort that prevents us from living a full life for the Lord, settling for some bad-tasting fruit that fails to make the world a better place in preparation for heaven. Instead, you are fruit-yielders. It’s written all over your faces. In your hearts; in your prayer life; in your search for peace; in your good works; in your love of neighbor; and in your unbreakable bond of love for your Savior. Bringing all these human and divine elements together, alongside the greatest protection of all that we have – the Eucharist – allows us to live in the Divine protection necessary to produce 30, 60 and 100-fold. God becomes a shield about us, preserving us for life eternal. There are some fruit-yielders in the present living in fear of a virus and other current issues. Some folks are understandably cautious. But others are living in panic mode. People who have not given in to the lure of riches; or worldly anxieties in the way Jesus means that term; they are not dealing with persecution; they have a deep root of faith. Us fruit-yielders here, we pray for them. we pray for them to do a U-turn to a safe place, receive that Divine protection found firstly in the Eucharist, and reach the fullness of the 4th person in our Lord’s parable. In the parable of the sower and the seed, the difference between the first three people who fall short, and the last person who yields much fruit, is our desire to do what needs to be done to ensure divine protection. That takes courage. It takes stepping out of our comfort zone. And it takes a deep love for the Eucharist.