3 rd Sunday in Lent - A Little Known Truth About Repentance

Gospel	Luke 13:1-9 ©

'Leave the fig tree one more year'

Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this, he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

  He told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”’

Another Sunday and another day off from the drudgery of making countless miles disappear beneath our feet.  Before prayer, he noticed one of the brothers refusing all nourishment and even water.  Refusing to drink water while in the desert is not a smart thing to do.  The Master observed this strange behavior and went and spoke to the man, Benjamin, who came to us from a little town in Illinois in the United States of America.  The Master spoke to him for a moment or two and the Benjamin drank and drank some more.  It appears that he had not had a drop of food or water for two days!  The Master called us together for Sunday worship. We spent time in communal prayer this morning, the Master, of course, joined.  As usual, we sang a song to get things rolling and then we had a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a reading from the Letters of Paul, and then the Master stood up and read from one of the Gospels.  Today he read from Luke the story if the fig tree.  When He was done, he had us sit around in a circle and he began to speak to us. 

"Brothers, I observe that many of you are practicing various forms of penance as we go along.  The Father has also noticed and is pleased that you realize the necessity for doing these things.  But I have to tell you something about repentance and penance that you may not have considered. "

"I said that the Father was pleased with your actions. But you are not doing these things to impress the Father, nor are you doing them so that He attains a better opinion of you.  The Father loves you just as you are.  Nothing you say or do can ever change the fact that He loves you.  Why then is repentance a thing that is good to do if it does not change how the Father feels about you?  After all, repenting of something is hard.  We have to look at ourselves and be critical of things that we have done or what we have failed to do. It is hard work and if it does not help change the way the Father thinks about us than why do it at all.  The Father's attitude about us cannot be changed, His love is the one constant in the universe that does not change.  Even the speed of light can slow when going through some substances bit the love of God for you never lessens and never changes even if you walk away from Him.  So, why?  We are more than bodies of flesh.  We are a creature created from the beginning with a body and a soul. It is our body and our soul that reaps the consequences of our actions." 

"Repentance is an action we should take upon ourselves in joy.  I hear you saying that why should we rejoice when we are like Job sitting amongst the ashes wearing sackcloth?  It is because we must remember that repentance will bring much joy to the soul.  Fasting, giving alms, doing good works, all of these things will not change God, they will change us.  The sin of Adam and Eve brought to us myopic spiritual eyesight.  We are so spiritually blind that our sight is mostly turned inside ourselves and our actions in life are directed to cause us to make ourselves feel good.  The snake in the garden knew this tendency of humans and he used it against us and in doing so made this quest for self-appeasement a thing that is almost hard-wired in one's soul."  

"When we repent, God sees this and He sends graces to help us overcome our tendency to self-indulgence.  Our soul receives those graces and it puts them to work and we little bit by little bit we begin to turn outward from ourselves and we begin to see what the needs of those around us are.  We then take action to help where we can.  So that is why repenting of sin should be taken not with a heavy heart but with great joy.  For by leaving sinful things behind we begin to take on the life that the Father has in mind for us.  We begin to build a world where hunger, poverty, and ignorance begin to fade.  Oh, don't be dismayed if you don't see changes right away, but then again, don't be dismayed if you do see sweeping changes in people right away either. Your actions are amplified by the grace that the Father sends."

"So, finally, do not be glum when doing acts of sacrifice as you train your body to listen to your soul.  Be of good cheer because what you are doing is a joyful thing, you are casting off the chains of slavery forged so long ago in the Garden of Eden and you are claiming the freedom that the Father has always wanted for you from the beginning. "

With that, the Master gave us the unleavened bread that he gives us each Sunday and once again I could feel my soul almost burst with the graces that this holy meal gives us.  I and all of the brothers gathered together and we sang songs of worship and we felt united in the one bread and one cup that the Master had given to us.  I love Sunday.