March 7, 2010
Third Sunday of Lent

“‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”

Jesus intercedes for the people of God. Give them one more chance! Hopefully they will learn and understand. Maybe my word will fertilize their soil.  It should be consoling for us that Jesus goes the extra mile for us, even though the people don’t see or understand. It is that way so often in life. People seek to help and lead us, but we are blind to it.  Our pride and anger block us from seeing.

How seriously do we take the challenge of Lent to reform our ways? When it comes to practicing what we say we believe, do we abandon Christianity for the sake of doing what we want to do rather than what should be done? How big a part do our egos play the way we do or do not commit ourselves to humility and change?

The scripture gives evidence of God’s tiring of the stubbornness of his people. Jesus pleads for more time for them, but the time will come when, if they have born no fruit, they will be cut down and discarded. It should be a warning for us to turn from the evil we have in hand and repent and believe that God will forget our faults if we change our ways.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to our changing is that we don’t see clearly what we are doing. We, in self-righteousness, don’t see the part we play in our own troubles. This is where the community comes in. When people tell us we are not acting appropriately and we refuse to listen, we have no one to blame but ourselves. A little  humility goes a long way! If we only have a little, great changes are possible.

We were created to love, to reflect in our relationships the desire of God that we forgive those who offend us, since we know we offend others. We are called to build bridges, not burn them. Only in that way can the Father’s love bear fruit in us. “By their actions you shall know them,” it says in the scripture. By the compassion and forgiveness we show, they will know we are children of our heavenly Father. God says his word can remove our stony hearts and give us the truly loving hearts, if we only let God’s word grow there.