From the responsorial psalm: “Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. The Lord is kind and merciful.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:1-9, today’s readings)
“‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down.'”
Jesus responds to people who tell him that Pontius Pilate had killed Galileans while they were offering sacrifices, mingling their blood with the sacrifices. Jesus challenges their belief that they died because of their sins, and he compares this incident to the people who died in Jerusalem when a tower fell on them. They were no more guilty than others, and Jesus says: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” In the parable, the owner orders that the fig tree finally be cut down. But the gardener pleads for one more year, promising to cultivate and fertilize the soil in hopes of future fruit. If it still yields nothing, then it will be cut down. Representing the gardener, Jesus calls for repentance and conversion, urging people to use the time they have to to turn away from sin and return to the Lord with their whole heart.
God, help me hear and take to heart the explicit commandment of Jesus: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.!” If I look at my life in relation to every good gift you have given me, like the tree in the parable, I have exhausted the soil and have little to show for it. Yet, the psalmist sings of your mercy (“so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him”), and the gardener asks for another year. For what purpose? “I shall cultivate the ground around it,” he says, “and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future.” Help me, Lord, live in your truth as your adopted son: in no other way do I stand secure but on the sacred ground of you whose name is I AM through the mercy of Jesus Christ your Son.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.