For the next three Sundays the Gospel readings focus on three of the major themes of Lent: repentance (today), reconciliation (4th Sunday of Lent) and forgiveness (5th Sunday of Lent). The call to repentance, a recurring subject in Jesus’ preaching, appears throughout the Gospels: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel"(Mark 1: 15). And when Jesus talks about repentance he means absolute and total conversion.
In today’s Gospel, Luke 13: 1-9, Jesus confronts the question, why do bad things happen to people? Why did Pilate kill and desecrate Jews from Galilee? Jesus counters with the question “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?” What about “the eighteen people who died when the tower Siloam fell on them”? He tells his questioners “if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did”! At first reading Jesus’ response seems very harsh. All of us are going to die. Does Jesus mean that if we do not repent that some calamity will happen to us?
No, Jesus reminds us through these two tragic examples and the parable of the fig tree that God does not judge us on how we die. Rather, God judges us on how we live. A barren fig tree is useless in God’s eyes. However, under the care of a good gardener and with cultivation and fertilizer it has the potential to bear fruit. God wants us to weed out our sinfulness, prune away our bad behavior and free ourselves from anything that might strangle the roots that help us grow in his love. God call us to repent so that we can become productive citizens of the Kingdom. All of us are sinners. Our only hope is repentance, total conversion to new life, through the good news of salvation offered to us by the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the reason we have to repent now is, as St. Matthew reminds us " you do not know on which day your Lord will come…. be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Matt. 24: 42, 44). Lord, help us realize that the cost of being your disciple is big, but the cost of not being one is bigger still.
Patient God, we are reluctant and slow to make the change of heart we need.
Give us the time to understand the extent of your mercy and your love,
which your Son Jesus showed us in its fullness in his suffering and death.
Recognize your own Son in us and accept us in our poverty.
Raise us up, and change us, so we may proclaim your persistent love,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
