March 2022

The good news we receive today is that in God’s heart there is a room for all people without exception. Even if we are weak and sinful, if we often fall and feel so small before God, we can count on His mercy. The first words of today’s Gospel invite us to look confidently towards a loving God.  Tax collectors and sinners were approaching Jesus to listen to Him. He welcomed everybody who were lost and sat at the table with them. We too can come to Jesus and taste His love, and strengthen ourselves with His forgiveness.

It is true – it is difficult to understand the patient love of the Lord, who, despite our constant failures, shows His mercy constantly. However, this is how God loves, and His love is different from ours, which often recalculates the balance of profits and losses. The merciful father in the Gospel’s parable does not give up his fatherly tenderness, waits patiently for his son’s return, meets him with open arms, gives him a feast for joy and dresses him in his best clothes. In short, he restores his son’s lost dignity. God also prepares such beautiful gifts for us. It is only necessary to constantly patiently return to the Father’s arms, because only there is love and forgiveness. St. Paul invites us: Be reconciled to God!

You can start all over again today. The old is passing away, and now something new, better, more beautiful is born. But will you take another chance given to you from God …?

The example of the tree mentioned in today’s Gospel shows that we cannot speak of a guarantee everywhere.  Where there is an organism which – like this evangelical tree – lives its own life, it is difficult to speak of a guarantee.  There is only a silent hope: “it may bear fruit.”

The season of Great Lent prompts us to certain sacrifices, mortification, and various forms of penance. On the one hand, with coming of Lent, arises an anxiety of the vineyard owner in many hearts, who says: “I am coming and looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I do not find it”; on the other hand, you can hear the words full of determination: “one more year…maybe it will bear fruit.”

Today’s Gospel is part of the Lenten call to conversion. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to make an examination of your conscience about wasted opportunities and repeated promises. “It’s been three years since I’m coming looking for fruit,” says Christ … Isn’t it time to say to Him, “Lord, it’s still one more year year“. You have to find a little hope in you, some faith in God’s help and, quite simply, a little self-denial. When we use well our time of conversion, the joy of Easter will truly be the joy of life that bears the fruit that God seeks in it. 

The story of Jesus in the desert tells about temptations of the evil and how to overcome them. When we analyze Jesus’ answers, we find clues for our conduct. The desert is a symbol of man’s spiritual struggle. Jesus goes there full of the Holy Spirit. Before He begins the fight against Satan, He is filled with the power received from the Father. This fact means that then God allows us to be tempted, first He grants us His grace to face them. The first temptation is about our needs. Sometimes it seems as if there are things we couldn’t live without. The world of advertising further enhances this impression in us. Jesus does not reject our desires or needs, but He makes us realize that, as believers, we are to nourish ourselves by God’s Word. It contains the truth about our lives and answers to the most difficult questions. In the second temptation, Jesus straightens our thinking about the value system. Wealth, power or beauty are not the most important things in life. We should care more about cultivating a relationship with God, because our happiness depends on Him: “For what profit will a man receive, if he gains the whole world and suffers a loss of his soul?” In the third temptation Jesus reveals our dignity. It is a gift from God and no one can take it from us. Regardless of our sins, God always loves us and we are priceless to Him. It is worth to remember it as we begin the time of our conversion.