March 14, 2004 - 3rd Sunday of Lent

Lk 13:1-9

Spring is a time of new beginnings. Leaves sprouting, birds mating, colors peering out, blossoms bursting, all indicate new life. Hope is in the air. Good beginnings engender hope. It is almost as if a bountiful harvest can be foreseen. But there is many a slip between sowing good seed and harvesting a bumper crop. A late frost can arrest growth. Summer storms can wreak havoc, perhaps, even total destruction. Still, there is hope. Without hope nothing worthwhile is achieved.

Something similar happens in life and in particular, in the life of faith. Baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage vows and ordination all speak of new beginnings pregnant with great expectations. Selfishness and sin, weakness and wanderlust, fear and fantasy, pride and prejudice can retard growth into mature faith-filled living. But no matter what the setbacks here, there comes the chance to make afresh start.

Today's gospel is an invitation to make the most of such an opportunity with its clarion call to repent and its challenging image of the barren fig tree reminding us that we are called to go before the Lord with a bumper harvest of good works, of kindnesses to those in need, of fidelity in the face of suffering, of steadfastness in sharing faith.

Repentance is unfashionable because compromise is more accommodating. But repentance is about reality. Compromise is about fantasy. The choice is to live in the world of make believe or to allow him to revitalize the seeds of the spirit within us one more time. To be willing and able, to make a fresh start in life is God's greatest gift to us. He offers it now.

(Commentary by Tom Clancy. Taken from "Preaching the Word", Columba)

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