A patient God, waiting for our fruits.
Listening the Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit you have taught the hearts of your faithful. In the same Spirit help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Listening the Word: Luke 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus 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.’”
Reflection
At the time of Jesus many people thought that God could not stand sinners and was always ready to
punish them. Diseases and unexpected deaths were punishments from God, and therefore people
affected by such evils had to be sinners, according to this belief.
In the gospel of this Sunday Jesus strongly rejects this way of thinking: “Do you think that because
these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no
means! ... 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!”
In the parable that follows, Jesus shows even more clearly the difference between the God of the
Pharisees and the true God. In the parable, the fig tree that does not produce fruits represents
sinners. It represents each one of us, because we are all sinners.
The owner of the vineyard is the God of the Pharisees, willing and ready to cut down the fruitless
tree, the God always ready to punish sinners.
The gardener is the God of Jesus, the true God. He is a patient, merciful God. He is in no hurry to
cut the tree, he is in no hurry to punish the sinner, on the contrary: he gives the sinner more time to
repent and even help the sinner by taking special care of him/her (“I shall cultivate the ground
around it and fertilize it”). God gives us his Word and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and
the sacrament of Reconciliation, to sustain us in our journey of conversion, so that we can produce
the fruits that he expect from us. And these fruits are the good deeds that we do when we put into
practice the commandment of love.
Reflection Questions
1. How do I perceive God in my own life—more like the owner of the vineyard, quick to judge and punish, or like the patient gardener, giving me time and help to grow?
2. What “fruits” am I producing in my life, and how can I better respond to God’s patience and mercy by living out the commandment of love?
