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.