Becoming a Fruitful Tree

The Catholic Liturgy for the 3^rd Sunday of Lent, March 24, 2019. Gospel: Luke 13:1-9. Theme: Becoming a Fruitful Tree

I’m sure most of you are at least somewhat familiar with 12-step recovery groups that enable people to face up to and overcome their addictions, whatever those might be – alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, gambling, excessive concern over body image, etc. The underlying principle of the 12 Steps is that those who have become truly powerless over such behaviors can be totally changed by surrendering their lives and wills to the care of God. 

But I think that we are all – every one of us – addicts who are in need of God’s intervention in our lives.  We are all – every one of us – powerless over the lure of sin in our lives.  We are all – every one of us – chained to this fundamental human condition and not a one of us can break free of it on our own. We all need the power of God breaking into our lives and changing us from the inside out.

This brings to mind the true story of Mary, a beautiful young Catholic girl who lived in Egypt. By the time of her teenage years, she had become a prostitute and we are told she became very rich but also very bored and began to seek out the thrill of new challenges. So, she got an idea that was horrible – demonic even. She decided to go on one of the very popular pilgrimages to the Holy Land, not out of any religious devotion, but for the thrill of seducing the men on pilgrimage. And stories tell us that she was quite successful.

One day when the pilgrims were going to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to venerate the empty Resurrection-tomb of Jesus, Mary joined them solely out of curiosity. But then God, in His awesome mercy, intervened into Mary’s life. Everyone was able to pass through the church doors…except for her. Oh, not that she didn’t try…but every time she DID try an invisible force prevented her entering. After several failed attempts, her eyes caught sight of a picture of the Blessed Mother hanging above the doorway.  It seemed to come to life and spoke to her, “Repent of your sins. Ask forgiveness and change your ways. Then you shall enter.”

Mary repented then and there over her wayward life and begged a priest who was walking by to hear her confession. Then, going back to the entrance of the shrine, she walked right through the doors without a problem and spent the entire day there in prayer and meditation.

Mary spent the rest of her life growing in that experience of God’s love. Her new way of thinking, her new way of living, bore fruit in continual conversion of heart and life. And she has been honored for centuries now as St. Mary of Egypt. And as a matter of fact, in some parts of the Catholic world, the 5^th Sunday of Lent is dedicated to her honor because she is such an outstanding example of the spirit of this season.

In today’s Gospel Jesus gives each one of us the same message that Mary was given:  to give up a way of thinking, a way of living, that leads to spiritual death; to repent and not perish eternally.  And we can heed His Word by engaging in three things that so marked St. Mary’s life: repentance, forgiveness, and conversion.

Repentance means turning away from any attitude or behavior that is holding us back from living as authentic Christians. True repentance comes from the heart and is born from an experience of God's love that changes me.  The realization that God is passionately in love with me changes me from the inside out. It makes me want to respond to His love by living a life that is truly pleasing to Him.

Forgiveness flows from this experience of repentance and can transform us, if we allow it to. God’s forgiveness in Christ is immense, unlimited and unconditional just like his love. When God forgives, He does indeed, forget. And this forgetfulness on God’s part allows me to start life anew, with a clean slate. As far as God is concerned, what we have repented of and confessed especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation no longer exists, as if it never even took place. It is gone, obliterated, erased from the history of our lives.

The experience of repentance and forgiveness then leads us to conversion of heart and life. Once we have encountered this passionate love of God and have been deeply touched by His unconditional forgiveness, we are changed from the inside out, like St. Mary of Egypt. We are freed to embrace a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life, a new way of living.

In today’s Gospel Jesus gave us the parable of a barren fig tree as a symbol of what we can do with the gift of our lives. It is up to each one of us as to if this tree will grow and flourish or if it will wither and get cut down. Repentance, Forgiveness, and Conversion, watered by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, can enable the tree of our lives to grow and blossom and become something beautiful for God and for the world.