March 23, 2025.
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ” ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ (Luke 13, 6-9)
When we are young, time seems infinite and we often scorn it as if we had an inexhaustible fortune of it. Later, as we age, we would like to do what we didn’t and we often find that the age has already passed, we no longer have the strength. With respect to God something similar happens. We are so sure of his kindness that it seems to us that it will never stop and therefore we feel that always, at any moment, we can change and turn into the saints that He awaits. The assurance our faith gives us knowing that until the last moment a sinner can ask for forgiveness and be forgiven, turns against God himself, as if his kindness was his worst enemy and to top it off also ours, since by not doing the good we should we hurt ourselves. It is as if God were an indulgent father who ends up with a collection of spoiled children, and, as a result, wretched. To avoid this, to put the idea of God in its righteous place, to make us understand that divine love is not at odds with justice, this is why Jesus told us the parable of the fig tree that didn’t give fruit.
God, actually, does give us many opportunities, but these are not infinite. The moment will arrive in each of our lives in which the opportunities to love will have ended and perhaps then we will ask for an extension, an hour more of life, to do what we didn’t do in all of those lost years and days. Let us take advantage that our heart still beats to be thankful and to love.
Intentions: Am I fulfilling my good intentions? If the hour of my death arrives will I be ready, in the grace of God and with my arms full of good works?