Readings: 1st Reading, Exodus 3 : 1 – 8, 13 – 15

 Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 102:1-4, 6-8,11                   

2nd Reading, 1 Cor. 10 : 1 – 6, 10 – 12                   

Gospel, Luke 13 : 1 – 9.

In the first reading, God calls Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. First of all God presents His credentials as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then presents His mission to Moses. Moses a shepherd, is to meet a powerful and wicked King, Pharaoh of Egypt. We have heard the story of his struggles to liberate the Israelites so many times since our Sunday School days. Great things happen when God is around!

The Gospel gives one of the shortest parables ever given by Jesus. When the people report to Jesus about the blood of Galileans which Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, Jesus instead of praising them for the sacrifices at all, and condemning Pilate for his act, tells them, that the Galileans who suffered at the hands of Pilate were not greater sinners than them complaining. Those killed by the collapsing tower at Siloam, could never have been the worst sinners living in Jerusalem either. Jesus proceeds to tell them the parable of the fig tree. The man who planted the fig tree in his vineyard comes three times, three different years and finds no figs on the tree. Out of annoyance, he asks for the tree to be cut down, because it is wasting the soil. The gardener pleads for another year, during which he will manure it and if it does not give fruit, then it could be cut down.

The three visits of the owner of the vineyard, represents  God’s visits through his messengers. These abound, the number three here is just a representation of so many times. We have met them in the Bible from Genesis to the Revelations and we meet them every day of our lives. The vineyard is the earth in which we sojourn, and the fig tree represents each of us. Jesus is pleading on our behalf to make us bear fruit.

The Gospel of today is very timely, apt and not confined to our present circumstance. It touches me and I wish it touches all of us in the same way in this our e-forum.  We all have seven deadly weaknesses: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. We all suffer from these. Those who experience tragedy are not more guilty than we are. They do not experience such because of some sins they have committed which we are free of. We know that physical suffering is not necessarily caused by sin. However, punishment must come as a result of sin, if we do not repent. We need repentance to be fruit bearing believers. We can only bear fruit after repentance from these weaknesses, otherwise we will perish. Christ does not mince words about this.  Paul repeats it in the second reading.

I have three points to share from this parable. The first is the call to repentance. No one is clean, though we may not have suffered tragedies like others. We will see this repeated several times in the Bible. In Romans Paul says, “there is none righteous, no, not one: … there is none that does good, no, not one”. The Old Testament Prophet , Isaiah had this to say; “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned away, every one to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6. Paul further emphasises this in Romans 3: 23, “All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” Unless we repent, we will perish. We may be exempted from earthly tragedy, but we will perish by losing the Kingdom of God. We cannot be asking for forgiveness without repenting. With our seven deadly weaknesses, we may have sinned in several varied ways. Maybe we are political sinners, matrimonial sinners, corporate sinners or just negligent sinners. The war of words is no less than those of guns and missiles. Or may it also be that we have failed to do our christian duty. The stone we might have lifted on our brother’s way, or the little heartfelt counsel we were too hurried to say. Our Christian truth needs to be publicly accessible every where we go.

The second lesson from the parable is the challenge to the Church. By Church here, I am not referring to an empty building, built of stone, or an altar made of coloured stone. By Church, I mean our Christian love. The gardener asks for one more year to manure the fig tree so that it could bear fruit. We should make the effort to manure our lives by living the word of God, through loving actions in our homes, schools, workplaces, the society in which we live and even in an e-forum like this one. We should not only live the Christian life in a Church building and live some other type of life in the public space. Christian life can not be reduced to a stage performance!

The Third lesson is the prospect of Judgement. The sober words of the gardener are very clear, asking for another year to work harder, after which the absence of fruit should necessitate the fig tree to be cut down. Within, a reasonable time, we should repent otherwise face doom. Are there points in our lives when we can not repent? At such a point we are doomed to lose the Kingdom of God. We see two thieves hanging around Jesus on Calvary. One repents and the other instead challenges Jesus. Jesus promises paradise to only the repentant thief. Judgement is the consequence of the failure to repent. As a repentant believer, we represent the sign and symbol of Jesus the Lord. We should use the public and private places for all these three: we repent first, call others to follow with our love and then, we can avoid the wrath of God.

Jesus invites us to repent from those attitudes that do not yield blessings. He also depicts God’s patience toward our waywardness, but warns that we must not presume upon this patience and mercy. This is a Godly disciplinary warning, for our own good, to inspire a Godly fear and reverence for God’s word. God gives us the time to get it right with Him. That time is now! How do we then repent?

The rainy season is just beginning after the dry season has stripped the trees of their leaves. How poor and bare they look! All their flaws are plain to be seen. Yet it is only when a tree has thus been stripped that we can see and appreciate its true shape. Nothing can hide in it, not even the tiny birds. The sun light pours through it and how lovely it is to be able to look through its skeletal branches to the blue sky beyond.

It is the same way with ourselves. When we have been stripped of all inessentials, of all the flimsy things we use to hide our nakedness, then all warts and wounds will appear. At the same time, it is only when all that is unimportant has been taken away that our true worth is revealed. Jesus comes to strip us of all that is useless, to expose our wounds so that he can heal them. Of course, your doctor needs to see those hidden affected and infected parts to reveal your true state and only then can the right medication be prescribed.

We need to strip ourselves of all inessentials and our true selves emerge. We know best who we are. We know that we are not what others know of us. We can ask for forgiveness only when we accept who we are. Lent calls us to repentance, but if our repentance does not involve a change of heart, it will not lead to a change of life that can bear fruit. It will be like decapitating weeds while leaving their roots intact.But if we change our hearts, then our lives will change and thus our yield.

A Little Prayer for today.

Lord Jesus, thank You for opening my eyes! Days pass and the years vanish and I walk sightless among your miracles. Lord, fill my eyes with seeing and my mind with knowing. Let there be moments when the radiance of Your presence illuminates the darkness in which I walk. Help me to see, wherever I gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And I the clay touched by your hand, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, “How filled with awe is this place and I did not know it”. Amen.

Have a Blessed Week.
Bobe Talla Toh