God Is Seeking That Precious Thing In You

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope the Transfiguration of Christ last week helped all of us to see the aim of Lent, which is to experience more deeply the resurrection. And also to look up and see what God is preparing for all of us.

We hear this week that often we think that the suffering of people is a result of their sins or their bad character, which sometimes is true. However, do you think the people killed in New Zealand last week were worse sinners than others in the country or worse than others in Europe or the Americas? It seems not. Or the ones who survived were better than the others? I don’t think so. Reading the reports it sounds like they were the lucky ones.

In a way, I am surprised these events don’t happen more often or that they don’t happen in our towns. These tragic events are providential invitations to repent as we hear from the gospel (Luke 13: 1-9). They may very well happen to us or to someone we know one day. Jesus is telling us that unless we repent from our sins worse things may happen to us. It is a wake up call. The Lord is saying turn around. You are chasing after the wrong things in life: money, prestige, security.

The second part of the gospel says that mature Christians should show signs of fruit in their lives. What does this mean? In a Christian man or woman we ought to see signs of forgiveness, of mercy, of generosity, of apostolic zeal, etc. It is impressive to see the generosity of many in our parish in helping to serve at daily Mass, to decorate the church, to greet people and help make the celebration of Mass peaceful so that God can speak to us, and we can avoid distractions. But many are ‘users’ we could say; they come and receive a great benefit, but they don’t give anything back to God.

The fig tree is a symbol of Israel, and of you and me. God has given it a special place in the garden where the soil is better and there is a greater chance of fruit. Usually it takes three years for the tree to mature and then be able to give fruit. If there is no fruit after three years then it probably will not ever yield any.

The owner had the right to cut it down, but the gardener who is God says no wait another year. Give it time and fertilizer and see if it brings some fruit. But the goodness of God is not forever, at some point judgment day will come and God will look for fruit. The purpose of a fig tree is to give fruit. What is your purpose? It is also to give fruit, to give glory to God, to forgive those around you, to love those who hurt you.

The end of the gospel is open ended. Does the tree bear fruit? We don’t know. The more important question is do we bear fruit? Let’s see what happens this year. Let’s see who volunteers in the parish; is it only the same people who always do so? Let’s see what God does with us this year.

The three years are also symbolic of the public life of Christ. Did Israel produce fruit during that time? It seems that it didn’t and even by the year 70 AD the temple was destroyed by the Romans. What will happen to your parish in twenty years? It is an interesting question.

God is always searching for us; he is hungry for fruit as we see in Matthew’s gospel. He went the whole night without eating. He sees something wonderful and desirable in you. Give it over to him. Be the person that God created you to be. The original meaning of the word sin in Greek was to miss the mark. God made you to be and to do some amazing things and when we sin we change the plan of God for us. This affects the community and the world.

Let us use this Lent to turn once again to God and see how much he has given us. We inherited a free country, a good family, a great parish. We need to put in as much as we take out, or to put in even more than we take out. Let us ask the Lord to help us to be generous with him and those who have needs around us.

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