“Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” (Luke 13:7)

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree in a vineyard. It is striking that the owner has planted it among his vines, and so when it fails to bear fruit he considers cutting it down so that it does not “use up the ground” meant for the vine.

When we are called into the Church, we are like fig trees in a vineyard: we have no right to be there – our presence is a grace. And if we do not bear fruit in charity, we are not only harming ourselves but also depriving others who might otherwise bear fruit: we are “using up the ground”. Do I ever consider that the place I take in the church pew – or seat on the sanctuary – might be used better by another?

Receiving the sacraments is no guarantee that we are bearing fruit in deeds of love, as St Paul explained. The Israelites in the desert, who ate and drank God’s miraculous gifts, displeased him – so “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12).

Nor is it sufficient to sympathise with the sufferings of others in order to be at rights with God: we need to repent, not only lament. In the Gospel, the crowd focuses on those killed accidentally by a falling tower or sacrilegiously by Pilate, rather than on their own need for conversion – just as the women of Jerusalem will later shed tears for Jesus, sent by Pilate to Calvary, rather than weep for their own sins (Luke 23:28). We should examine our sorrow, and whether it is leading us to God or not, as St Paul described: “The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor 7:10).

Jesus is always interceding for us with the Father, as portrayed in the conversation between the parable’s vineyard owner and the vinedresser. The latter, representing Jesus, pleads for another chance – “one more year” – for us to bear fruit in love, and says he will “dig round” and “put on manure”. Jesus offers us a new beginning, no matter what has gone before. He “digs round” us to open us to his grace – and sometimes this means allowing those close to us to suffer, since this, in his providence, can prompt us to conversion. He “puts on manure” – he gives his grace, sometimes through other people’s problems and mess, which can bring us in humility to him. He was the “rock” in the desert for the Israelites, pierced to give water, and he is this for us too: his heart was pierced on the Cross, to pour out blood and water to wash us from sin continually through the sacraments.

Let us go to Mary, Mother and yet ever-Virgin, symbolised by the burning bush – burned, yet ever alive. God spoke his name through the bush to Moses, and Jesus speaks to us through Mary, calling us to bear fruit in love with her help.

(Photo by LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

The post “Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” (Luke 13:7) first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post “Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” (Luke 13:7) appeared first on Catholic Herald.