Dear Preachers:

PRE-NOTE:

I have podcasts and apps on my phone. Throughout the day banners drop-down with news updates about: the Central American refugees’ progress through Mexico; the latest events from the White House; the awful tornado in Alabama; the economic and political crisis in Venezuela; Prime Minister Trudeau’s political woes in Canada, etc.

With modern technology and social media I imagine all over the world people are getting similar updates – almost immediately. Together we learn of tragedies, conflicts, weather, soccer and baseball scores. News these days travels fast, very fast.

In Jesus’ time news traveled much slower. No Internet. No newspaper. Just word of mouth. Today’s gospel tells us what people were talking about. Like our own times, the top news of the day were about tragedies. Bad news travels fast in any age. Two tragedies, with two different causes. People told Jesus about the tyrant Pilate’s slaughter of Galileans (Jesus was a Galilean). Pilate killed them in the Temple, where they had come to offer animal sacrifices. The blood of the victims, mixed with the blood of their own sacrifices. Imagine the outrage, humiliation and impotency of the Jewish people over what happened to those victims. In, of all places, the sacred Temple! Jesus’ contemporaries had a specific human to blame for this first piece of bad news – Pilate – one more tyrant coming down hard on the backs of an enslaved people.

What would people say about the second piece of bad news? A tower collapsed in Siloam and killed 18 people. Similar catastrophes continue to happen in our own time. Some are the results of natural forces (like the recent tornado in Alabama); others are caused by faulty construction – sometimes because of attempts to cut the costs of construction. In Jesus’ time, maybe for some today, people would have said: "God was punishing those people." It is not uncommon when pain, tragedy, or sickness happen that people ask: "What did I do that God is punishing me so?"

If we conclude that God is punishing us when bad things happen, then that lets other people off the hook who might conclude: "I must be doing something right in God’s eyes, look how blessed I am. I have good health, good job, a together family, good schooling etc." It is appropriate to appreciate and be thankful for the good things in our lives. But today’s gospel offers us a caution. Our prosperity and well-being have nothing to do with our virtue, nor are they a reward for good behavior.

Jesus pushes aside such presumptuous conclusions and challenges his hearers, who might be feeling content and comfortable, to examine their own lives and make changes when and where necessary. What an appropriate gospel for Lent!

Thus, the parable of the fig tree. It’s not bearing fruit, but the gardener convinces the owner to give it another year, under the gardener’s extra care. "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 cut it down." It is a tale of reprieve; there is time to do something. But that comes with a caution that can stir us to do what needs to be done – before it is too late.

The parable might remind us of what we already know: life is short. We certainly know enough people who have died suddenly. That should wake us up. It could prompt us to: work on that tattered relationship; attend to our marriage; spend more time with the kids; deal with that bad habit; make that phone call; join our parish community and its outreach to the poor – before it is too late.

The parable about the barren fig tree is a grace. It is a wake up call to tell us it is a good time to make the changes we have been putting off and know we must do. Because, the parable is quite clear... there is a time limit. I work best when I have a deadline. I get to the job at hand; concentrate my best efforts and work diligently. Hear the voice of the gardener, "If it doesn’t bear fruit you can cut it down."

We are being given time – a graced time. We have space to grow; mature spiritually; reshape our lives; serve the Lord; remove the obstacles, big or small, between us and God; between us and others.

There is a deadline. But we don’t have to get our act together on our own. The parable is about grace. We are "cultivated" by a loving Gardener. If we desire to change we have help. Jesus is the Gardener who will nurture in us fruits of conversion and faithful discipleship.

If we open our eyes and look closely we might see the gracious hand of God reaching out to us: through friends and family; in the breaks in our daily routine; during a quiet moment and even in the rush and in the surprises. God’s gracious hand is there guiding and strengthening us through: the Scriptures, showing us the way and helping us to choose it and in the resurrected life of Jesus present to us today on the altar. He is the Gardener who nourishes us and gives himself as food and drink so that we can use the time we have to change and bear fruit – not just for ourselves, – but for those in need.

1 Corinthians 10: 12

O-oh! No doubt about it, this passage is a rebuke against overconfidence and feeling completely secure in your faith. The warning is immediately balanced in the next sentence by a reassurance that God will provide a way to correct.

In this season of self-examination, we should go beyond personal sin and think about our part in corporate sin or as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) refers to it, "social sin." The catechetical tradition recalls that there are "sins that cry to heaven" including the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan. . .(1867). The Catechism gets very specific how this occurs when it states that "we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them: by participating directly and voluntarily in them; by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them; by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so; by protecting evil-doers (1868). Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to divine goodness. "Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins. . .they constitute a "social sin" (1869). Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI reminds us: "The Church cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has many committees working on, advocating for or against, and issuing documents on areas of injustice.

As you seek God’s forgiveness in your daily prayer, ask to be strengthened to work toward justice, peace, and reconciliation in situations of conflict and oppression in your own lives and in the larger community

---Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS

Director of Social Justice Ministries

Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

Jesus said, ...those eighteen people who were killed

when the tower of Siloam fell on them –

do you think they were more guilty

than anyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

---Pope Francis

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