Third Sunday of Lent – Year C
During this week, we have been very lucky with the weather, it’s been warm and sunny. Spring is definitely here. Signs of life from plants to trees, even to the young lambs running around in the fields. When we see leaves beginning to sprout, we know summer fruit is near.
In the Gospel we hear the parable of the fig tree. A theme talking about repentance. Since we hear the people and leaders being urged to repent before they wither and die like the fig tree. However, Jesus wants the fig tree to have one last chance, allowing the gardener to fertilise it, in hope of it bearing fruit in the future. This parable shows us that there is still time available for a conversion of heart and saying sorry, asking for our sins to be forgiven through the Sacrament of Penance. However, time is not endless, there will come a point when the patient gardener will say, that’s enough, I’ll have to cut you down.
This happened with the Israelites, when they spent 40 years travelling the wilderness. After they were freed from the Egyptians, they were heading to the Promise Land that God gave to Moses and the Jewish people, this was technically only a few weeks journey away. However, it took them 40 years, because the Jewish people, lost sight of God’s love, they turned their backs on him, by moulding a Golden Calf to worship. God said, that this generation will not enter the promise land, so they spent the next 40 years, waiting for that generation to die out in the desert.
However, we know that God, is all loving, patient and kind. A love that wills the good of the other, because that is what God is. He doesn’t go in and out of love, he doesn’t change his mind, he doesn’t love some and not to others. God indeed like the sun shines on the good and bad alike. In the words of Jesus: No act of ours can possibly make him stop loving us. We are unique in God eyes, we are priceless, there is only one of us … (thank goodness), and we are made perfect, in the image and likeness of God. Making God the best of parents.
However, we have also free will, a precious gift from God. We are definitely not God’s puppets, we have the free will to say yes and no to anything we like, even to God’s love. If we turn towards him in love and repentance, then we open like a flower, radiating God’s love and divine light in our inmost being.
However, time is running out, we do not know the time or the hour, when Jesus will call us by name to depart from this world, or when Jesus will descend on the clouds at his second coming. The ‘End of the ages’, refers to the age that was opened by Jesus’ Resurrection, which is the final times.
So, let us use the rest of our Lenten season to renew our Lenten promises, and to turn to him in love and mercy. We may ask him to release us from the heavy burdens that we carry, because often the Lord does release the pressure from our minds, but all too often his answer is to give us the strength we need to endure the suffering and to turn it into a sacrifice, that is acceptable to the Lord for the service of others.
St Paul says: ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, on behalf of his body, which is the Church.’
God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, so when we are tempted, we should turn to God Our Father in prayer, with Mary and Jesus at our side. Asking for his protection against the evil one, and we will be heard, and our prayers answered.
Rev. Fr Philip Wrigley's Blog 