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3rd Sunday Of Lent C

Celebrating 100 years

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Cycle C

Q. 258: What do those two tragic events that Jesus talks about have to do with the barren fig tree in today's gospel (Lk 13:1-9)?

The Jewish people believed that both good and bad events were directed to happen by God, and the "bad" things were punishment for transgressions against the law. Jesus rejected this all too easy way to explain disasters and misfortunes. But he used those events to point out the need for repentance.

It must have been very sobering to the listeners to realize that Jesus was pointing to each one of them when he said that similar disasters would befall them if they did not repent! After all, they thought they were in God's good graces since they were not experiencing disease or bad fortune. Jesus, of course, was talking about their eternal souls and the dangers they were in because of the need to repair the damage done to their covenant relationship with God.

At the same time, he speaks of the patient mercy of a loving God. The lives of the people are like barren fig trees, producing no fruit. But given time, with some nurturing and encouragement, maybe the fig tree will come around and begin to show signs of growth. If so, that will be the reason to save it. If it does not produce fruit, it will be destroyed.

In other words, if the people do not repent, and change their barren lives into producing fruit – love of God and love of neighbor – then they will meet the same fate as the victims of the disasters in Galilee and Siloam that Jesus mentioned. This fate, however, will be the eternal death of their souls.

Know Your Catechism! Lent is a time to check the state of our own souls. Are we like the barren fig tree – created to produce fruit but barren and weakened because of sin (CCC #1420)? The effects of sin are weakening and deadly, and call for expiation or penance (CCC #1459). Through His patience, God is continually offering us forgiveness, another chance to produce fruit (CCC #1989-90). Will I humble myself and make a good Confession this Lent, and at least every month thereafter?

Sir, leave it another year

In today's gospel, Christ teaches how God's grace works slowly but surely. Our Lord does so by the parable of the fig tree that seemed unproductive, but was finally made to produce through tender loving care.

The parable was fiction. Father Turquetil's conversion of the Eskimos was an even more amazing illustration of the workings of grace.

Arsene Turquetil was born near Lisieux, France, in 1876. He joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a missionary order; and having been ordained a priest in 1899, he was dispatched to Canada's far northeast to work among the natives. After twelve years with the Indians, he was sent to pioneer a mission among the Eskimos around Chesterfield Inlet, off upper Hudson Bay.

Father Arsene struggled five long years to win these non-Christians to the faith. They gathered to hear him but only in order to laugh at his message and mock his Mass.

When the bishop learned that his missionary could report not a single convert after five years, he ordered him to return to headquarters in order to receive another assignment.

Despite his failure thus far, Father Turquetil did not want to give up. "Give me one more year" he pleaded. "All right," said the bishop, "if you insist, one more year. "

This was around 1917. About that time the missionary received a letter from a friend back home telling how Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, a Lisieux girl, had since her death in 1897 been working many sorts of miracles. Father Arsene decided to ask her help with the Eskimos. His friend had sent a packet of dust from Therese's tomb. So, the next time the Eskimos gathered to hear him, he had his lay brothers go around behind the natives secretly and drop a bit of the dust on the head of each of them.

It worked. The priest was able to baptize a baby shortly after. Then the head of the Eskimos suddenly came up and said, "I want to become a Christian." The rest followed their leader's example. It was a true miracle of grace, and it also helped achieve the canonization of St. Therese of Lisieux in 1925. When Turquetil, named bishop of his Eskimos in 1931, retired in 1943, there were only two non-Christians among the Eskimos of Chesterfield Inlet!

-Father Robert F. McNamara

Q. 414: The story of the fig tree that produces nothing (Luke 13:6-9) comes right after the story of those who died unexpectedly through a cause other than their sinfulness (Luke 13:1-5). Is there a connection here?

The story of the men killed in a collapse of a tower at Siloam, as well as those who were killed by Pilate, were examples of Jesus' teaching which uses an analogy of “it was not their fault; however…” No, Jesus notes that their sins were not the cause of their untimely death. However, you also can face an untimely death today - a time unknown - so you had better prepare now to meet your maker!

This becomes evident in the story of the barren fig tree. It has produced nothing, so the owner tells the gardener to cut it down. The gardener begs for one more year to work with the troublesome tree, hoping that it will eventually bear fruit with proper nurturing. But the story does not mean that there is no end to the owner's patience. Rather, there will come a time when it must produce fruit or face extinction.

That is the connection. We never know when the patience of God is over, and we receive the call to “come home for an accounting” - i.e., the individual judgment after death. Therefore, the message is prepare now - in fact, prepare daily for the rest of your life. Lent is a time when this message is brought home in a special way for each one of us. “Repent” is not a word for “them” - it is a word calling me to take action to be reconciled with God and neighbor, right now before it is too late. Consider your own life honestly: are you a barren fig tree? What treatment do you really deserve from your Creator right now? What do you need to do about that?

Know Your Catechism! God is intent on saving his people, and he called Moses to assist in this long journey to freedom (First Reading, Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15). Lent is a special time to help us in our process of purification and enlightenment - the same journey that our RCIA catechumens and candidates are on. We are not alone: the Holy Spirit gives us special gifts to assist us on this journey (CCC #1830-1).


Page last modified on October 17, 2007, at 03:18 PM