Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus offers us a striking parable today which highlights the patient mercy of God alongside an urgent call to repentance. Given that God is infinitely patient and abundantly merciful, why this hasty summons to repent? Because we never know when our life will be demanded of us! God also invites us, in love, to live abundantly in the blessedness of fellowship with him. That abundant life becomes possible as we repent and experience interior conversion. We walk in greater joy and peace that way, and we become freer, less impeded channels of God’s love to others. God is patient, but what are we waiting for?!
Twice in the early verses of today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish . . .” This is a clear teaching. And yet somehow it’s easy to ignore it – maybe like other prospects that might frighten us, we chose not to think about it or put it off until another day. After all, as Jesus continues with his parable, we recognize the patience of the orchard owner in allowing the fruitless fig tree more time to become fruit-bearing. Our merciful Heavenly Father patiently waits to see if a person will repent and bear fruit in the future. If not, however, “the tree will be cut down” and one’s life will be demanded of him (Luke 12:20), or the day of judgment will occur with Christ’s second coming. Echoing in this parable are John the Baptist’s words about repentance, “Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:9).
Rather than frighten us, or send us into avoidance mode, I pray that Jesus’ summons to us might catapult us straight into his most Sacred Heart, into the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father. Jesus calls us to a deep and radical conversion because he loves us and makes possible our return to God through his work on the Cross. Jesus calls us to conversion of the heart, interior conversion. I share parts of two beautiful and compelling paragraphs (1431-32) from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, and end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace . . . Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him . . . God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced.”
Those are powerful, life-giving words. I invite each of us to take some time meditating and reflecting on this beautiful truth. When repentance feels difficult, if not impossible, let us remember, Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him . . . God gives us the strength to begin anew. I think sometimes we shrink back from examining our conscience and confessing our sins because we wrongly believe we’re left alone to undertake it. But nothing is farther from the truth! The God who has loved us from the beginning, who died on the Cross for our sins, who desires to be in intimate relationship with us, goes before us by his grace to make it possible for us to repent.
God gifts us with all that we need to turn away from our sins and to turn or return to him. God bestows his grace, gives us strength, and pours out the Holy Spirit upon and within us. God gives us the Sacraments, particularly Eucharist and Reconciliation – powerful encounters with the God who calls us to respond to his love. Again, “It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him.” As we acknowledge our sinfulness and need for repentance, we must FIRST consider God’s love! It is God’s love that draws us into repentance and conversion – our primary focus needs to be God’s love and mercy, not our sins. If we begin with our sins, we may find ourselves too burdened, too ashamed, too frightened to approach God. In discovering God’s great love, we fall on our faces in awe and gratitude, impelled to repentance.
We cannot experience “interior repentance” without God’s help! No one is capable of “a radical reorientation” of one’s whole life apart from God. There is no self-help process that we can pursue on our own! This is incredibly good and hopeful news!! Becoming a “fruitful fig tree” begins with submission and surrender. Let us ask God for the grace we need to repent; let us ask him for the strength to begin anew. Let us reflect today on the greatness of God’s love, allowing it to overwhelm us and irresistibly compel us to interior repentance and conversion. Let us hasten to receive God’s mercy!
I’ll see you in the Eucharist, Elizabeth Wells