3rd Sunday of Lent
Luke 13:1-9
Sunday Gospel Reflections by Sister Evelyn McKenna

Today’s Gospel, like so many during this Lenten season, calls us to repentance. However, it also reminds us of the patience of a loving and forgiving God.

“Cut it down” was the response of the owner when seeing a dying fig tree. The tree seemed beyond the possibility of renewed life. It wasn’t bearing fruit. It would be better to make a decision, to put closure, to write it off as beyond hope, to cut it down.

What a temptation this can be when the tree symbolizes an individual! Isn’t it easy to write off the one who, in our eyes, is beyond redemption? It’s too late for change – this person is incapable of newness! But is this true?

A merciful and loving God – the gardener - sees possibility. “Take time! Take care! Be patient!” The gardener continues to hold out hope for the fig tree just as God sees the possibilities for the individual whose roots and branches may not at first view seem to hold much hope. Our loving and forgiving God tends these roots ever so carefully. God’s is not the response of either anger or hopelessness. No – our God cultivates, fertilizes, forgives – and looks to the possibility that the “sinner” may again bear good fruit.

In the spirit of the gardener, we, too, are called to patience - with ourselves as well as with others who seem to us to need conversion. A kind word of encouragement or kindness can help cultivate and expand a closed or saddened heart. An act of gentleness rather than judgment can restore a person whose “soil” is exhausted and discouraged. Perhaps patience, like that of the gardener, is what the “sinner” needs to return to God.

“The Lord is kind and merciful.” Am I?

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

            This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

Sister Evelyn McKenna

Evelyn McKenna entered the Sisters of Notre Dame at Waltham, MA in 1957. Over the years she has taught grades 4 - 12. In recent years, she has ministered as a religious studies teacher at Notre Dame Academy, Worcester, Massachusetts. She worked with others in the “Love in Action” service program at the school. She is currently was a member of the Boston Province Leadership Team. She participated as a delegate to the SND General Chapter in 2008. She belongs to the team for Notre Dame Virtual School where she teaches the St. Julie project.