Jesus’ parable of the fig tree today portrays God
as a patient gardener in our lives, a gardener who cares for us with love and
patience. Gardening and farming and growing things are a big
part of life here in Mississippi, so this parable speaks to us today in the
midst of our own reality. Here in Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi, we’re
surrounded by many trees and a lot of greenery. In fact, this weekend Bo Mercier and our boy scout
troop are planting trees on our office grounds, something we have been planning
for quite a while. We are so thankful
that our boy scouts are helping out our parish in this way, the last step in
our tornado recovery. In Yazoo City, where I was pastor for two years
prior to coming to Tupelo, I had a lot of parishioners who were farmers. During the cotton harvesting season, I went
out with one of the farmers one afternoon, riding around on the cotton picker,
seeing the cotton gin in operation, seeing the steps they go through to harvest
their crop. I was amazed as how complicated
and technological this process was.
God the patient gardener is contrasted to the
owner of the fig tree in today’s Gospel, who is only concerned with the fruit
that the tree produces. The owner of the
fig tree really does not care about the tree, its life, and its future. The gardener sees goodness and life in the
tree. He wants to give the tree a chance to grow and
develop and achieve its potential. He wants to cultivate and fertilize the tree.
God the patient gardener sees the potential in us,
but he also knows the reality of sin and failure in our lives. As you all know, I see the stations of the cross
as a really important Lenten devotion we have in our Catholic faith, one that I
have encouraged all of you to come to again and again. I really loved the Stations of Mercy that we
prayed at 6:00 pm this past Friday at the stations of the cross, meditating on
the words and thoughts of Pope Francis as we journey through the year of mercy
that he declared for our Church. Pope Francis’ meditation on the fifth station,
Jesus falls the second time, connects us to our Gospel today. Pope Francis states this: “The hallmark of the
Christian life is not whether or not you will fall. We all fall.
We’re all sinners. The hallmark
is whether, after falling, you have the humility and courage to get up
again. We get up with the grace of
God. This is our witness. (We need to say to God): ‘Yes, I am a
sinner. I did wrong, but I go ahead
because (you are) with me.’” Pope Francis’ counsel should encourage us on our Lenten
journey, encouraging us to repent from
our sins out of our faith and out of our humility. Out of our sinfulness and brokenness and
humanness, God encourages us to reach out to others our of our faith and
humility and the reality of our own journey.
As sinners ourselves, as brothers and sisters in
the faith, we are to counsel the doubtful, the first spiritual work of
mercy. As a liturgy committee, this is the work of mercy
we connected to today’s Gospel. I have known Tanya Britton ever since I have been
a priest. Even though this is the first
time we have been at the same parish together, Tanya’s dad was a parishioner of
mine at Holy Family parish in Jackson. Anyone that knows Tanya knows that she is very
passionate about the pro-life movement as an intrinsic part of our Catholic
faith. Tanya will now give us her thoughts today on the
first spiritual work of mercy: counseling the doubtful.
