Friends, today’s Gospel includes the parable of a fig tree that bears no fruit.
This
is a standard trope in the theological literature of Israel: the tree
that bears no fruit is evocative of the moral person who bears no
spiritual fruit. Every single person has a mission: to be a conduit of
the divine grace into the world. Planted in God—think of Jesus’ image of
the vine and the branches—they are meant to bring forth the fruits of
love, peace, compassion, justice, nonviolence.
And
notice that this should be effortless. The closer God gets, the more
alive we become. But the mystery of sin is that we resist the invasion
of God; we prefer to go our own way; we cling to our own prerogatives
and our own narrow freedom. And the result is lifelessness. It feels
like depression, like your life is going nowhere—in Dante’s language,
like being "lost in a dark wood."
In
Jesus’ parable, the one caring for the tree begs the owner for one more
chance to manure the tree and to hoe around it, hoping to bring it back
to life. But if no life comes, the tree will be cut down. This is the
note of urgency that is struck over and again in the Bible. We can run
out of time. We can become so resistant to God’s grace that our leaves
dry up. This is not divine vengeance; it is spiritual physics.
So don’t be afraid of God! Surrender to him.
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 478
Brothers and sisters:
Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has freed you from the law of sin and death.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do,
this God has done:
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh
are concerned with the things of the flesh,
but those who live according to the spirit
with the things of the spirit.
The concern of the flesh is death,
but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.
For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God;
it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply,
"Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!"
And he told them this parable:
"There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?'
He said to him in reply,
'Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.'"
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