fruitfulness isn't productivity

Productivity gives us a certain notoriety and helps take away our fear of being useless. But if we want to live as followers of Jesus, we must come to know that products, successes, and results often belong more to the house of fear than to the house of love. When fear dominates our lives, we worry about our value as persons and become easily preoccupied with products. I even wonder if our deep-seated fear of being sterile does not often motivate us to a frantic productivity. The emphasis on productivity is increasing constantly. Not only in the business and industrial world, but also in the worlds of sports and academics productivity has become the main concern.

When productivity is our main way of overcoming self-doubt, we are extremely vulnerable to rejection and criticism and prone to inner anxiety and depression. Productivity can never give the deep sense of belonging we crave. The more we produce, the more we realize that successes and results cannot give us the experience of “at homeness.” In fact, our productivity often reveals to us that we are driven by fear. In this sense, sterility and productivity are the same: both can be signs that we doubt our ability to live fruitful lives. Living with Jean Vanier and his handicapped people, I realize how success-oriented I am. Living with men and women who cannot compete in the worlds of business, industry, sports, or academics, but for whom dressing, walking, speaking, eating, drinking, and playing are the main “accomplishments,” is extremely frustrating for me. I may have come to the theoretical insight that being is more important than doing.

Fecundity transcends both sterility and productivity, since it belongs to the order of love and not to the order of fear. The great mystery of fecundity is that it becomes visible where we have given up our attempts to control life and take the risk to let life reveal its own inner movements.

Fruits can only come forth from the ground of intimate love. They are not made, nor are they the result of specific human actions that can be repeated. Neither predictable nor definable, fruits are gifts to be received. It is precisely this quality of gift that distinguishes fruits from products. Let me describe three aspects of the fruitful life: vulnerability, gratitude, and care. A fruitful life is first of all lived in vulnerability. As long as we remain afraid of each other we arm ourselves and live defensive lives. No fruits can come forth from such lives. They lead to walls, arms, and to the most sophisticated inventions, such as Trident submarines and cruise missiles, but they do not bear fruit. Only when we dare to lay down our protective shields and trust each other enough to confess our shared weakness and need can we live a fruitful life together.