I kind of feel sorry for the fig tree in today’s gospel. It hasn’t produced any fruit in three years and is about to be cut down, when a compassionate gardener agrees to give it some extra special care. His plan is to cultivate the ground and fertilize it. Driving past a bunch of cows on my way to Mass this morning, I thought about fertilizer. I think we get what that’s about. But what about the cultivating?
Cultivating means breaking up the ground so that water and other things can get in. Recently, God has given us in the Midwest and example of what happens when the ground is not able to receive water. All the rain and snow of early spring that fell on Nebraska fell on ground that was still frozen from the winter. Rather than help the crops, the water couldn’t sink in and instead created the terrible floods we’re seeing now.
God’s grace is like that spring moisture. He’s going to send it, in abundance even. The key is not the rain, but whether the ground of our hearts is open and cultivated or frozen and cold. Lent is a great time for cultivating our ground so that we will be more open to God’s grace.
In today’s homily, I look at how God used Moses and the Israelites as examples for us. God called Moses from tending sheep, from the ordinary task of his day to day life. God called the Israelites over and over again in the wilderness, trying and trying again and again to gain their trust. Lent is a time for us to learn to be more docile to God’s call, like Moses. We will hopefully not forget the way God has worked in the past, like the Israelites, and learn to trust God.
Let’s not put it off. Start cultivating now. You never know when a tower might fall on you, like in the gospel. God expects us to bear fruit. For that to happen, we have to get out of our comfort zone, and we even have to put up with a bit of “fertilizer.”
1 comment
Enjoyed it.