Luke 13:1-9; Jesus preaches a lesson on repentance.

This week's Gospel invites us to repentance. This gospel contains two parts. In the
first part, Jesus talks about two tragic stories of his time and about the need to repent
because the same thing can happen to us at any time. The second part presents the parable
of the sterile fig tree. When I reflect on the first part, the following passage remains in my
mind: "I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish". The men who
go to Jesus have the mentality that suffering and tragedies are the result of punishment for
the sins that they have committed. Unfortunately, at the present time, there are still people
who still think in this way and they are wrong. The events that happen to us in life are not
the punishment for having sinned.
I want to share with you something that happened to me and it completely changed
my life. In August of 2011, I was on a mission in Spain. During the second week, I ate an
omelet that had gone bad and I did not realize it until my friends notified me. Two weeks
after this incident, I began to feel weak in my legs and hands. As the days went by, it
became harder for me to walk and I used to fall constantly. By the time I was in my fourth
week of stay in Spain, I was completely unable to walk. I had to return to Puerto Rico using
a wheelchair. In Puerto Rico, I visited several doctors and none of them found the origin of
this condition. A month later, in one of the many falls, I broke my toes. I went
to the hospital and explained what happened to the doctor and she suggested doing a
lumbar puncture to see if it could be due to having the Guillian-Barre syndrome, a
condition where the neuromuscular system is affected and it can cause death, because the
lungs stop working. When the lumbar puncture was performed, the result came out
positive. This condition has no cure, but just an initial treatment. After a week of
treatment, I was bedridden and unable to walk for more than six months and the recovery
process took 2 years until I get to where I am today, where I can walk without a walker or
cane. I lost my job and my life changed completely. Was my life not pleasing to God that I
deserved this condition? With the Jewish mentality as presented in the Gospel, this tragedy
of my life would be interpreted as having been caused by my sins. I was a very active
young man in the Church and in my community. At that time, I had taken the time of my
vacations at work to go on a mission to evangelize other young people. All these were good
actions. My brethren, what happens to us in life is not the result of living a life full of
goodness or badness. When this happened to me, I did not think it was a punishment from
God, but it was something that could happen to anyone.
There are many things that happen in this world that we cannot control and
sometimes, good people, like you and me are affected. This reminds me of another tragedy
that has affected the people of southern Africa. During this month heavy rains in Angola
and Malawi and cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe and Mozambique have killed almost 800 people
and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. Is it because there is a lot of
evil in these countries? No, my brethren. These are natural events that occur at any time and
in the least thoughtful way. The tragedy arrives at random and unnoticed, as it happened to
the Galileans and the eighteen people on which the tower of Siloe collapsed. In such cases,
suffering or tragedies are not the result of sin. Like these poor people who suddenly faced a
tragedy that changed their lives and caused the death of so many people in the blink of an
eye, we could suffer the same fate, that's why we must repent and be prepared to die at any
moment. One of the founders of my congregation constantly invited his students to always
be ready to die, because no one knows the day or the hour, in which he is going to die, the
important thing is to be in grace with God and to have the hope of living in heaven forever.
God is a god of love and mercy. He is not an evil and punishing god as some people
mistakenly think. He does not punish anyone with suffering or death. Suffering or death;
either by illness, accident or catastrophic event, whatever are natural events that
occurs as a result of another natural events, is not a punishment from God because God
does not punish and this is what Jesus tells us in this passage. Therefore, my brethren take
advantage of this time of Lent whereby the Church invites us to repentance; let us go to the
sacrament of reconciliation to be in grace with God. Death can come at any time so do not
wait until it's too late. Salvation or condemnation is in our hands. We are free to choose, to
opt for good, instead of evil, for the truth, instead of a lie, for love, instead of hate, and
grace instead of sin. Remember the words of Jesus: "unless you repent you will all
likewise perish". That is to say, if we do not convert, it does not matter how we die,
because we will have lost forever.
In the second part of the Gospel, the parable of the barren fig tree offers us a ray of
hope. In the parable, we see three characters, the owner, the gardener and the fig tree. The
owner is God, the gardener is Jesus and the fig tree represents each one of us. This parable
reveals to us that God is merciful and patient and is willing to forgive us and grant us more
time, but also that God is just and wants to see fruit in our lives. The patience and mercy of
God has no limits, but our time in this world is limited. So again, the Gospel invites us
to repent while we still have the opportunity to do so. None of us knows how much life we
have left. Jesus warns us that there will be a final judgment for all of us where we will be
judged by love and our fruits in life. When we meditate on the previous warning, "unless
you repent you will all likewise perish", we learn that there is a way to avoid being "cut"
and it is conversion.
The second character is the gardener. The gardener intercedes with the owner to
leave the fig tree for longer, he cares for it, he loves it, he protects it and he will continue to
fertilize it to try to finally bear fruit. This passage teaches us that Jesus is our
intercessor. Jesus comes to help us have a right relationship with God. He knows our
weaknesses and he prays for us before the Father. This Gospel story reminds me of two
events that happened to me in my novitiate experience in Paraguay. As part of my tasks and
responsibilities, I was in charge of the garden and all the trees on our land. From time to
time, Father José, my novice master, helped me and on one occasion, he wanted to cut
some papaya trees because supposedly after giving the first fruits they would not give
anything more. I asked him that we give them an additional time that if they did not bear
fruit I will cut them myself. With time, they returned to bear fruits. On another occasion I
had planted some pumpkin seeds, they germinated and the plant began to grow. He told me
it was a waste of time and that the plant was a problem because it got tangled up in the
fence and they continued to spread over time. He wanted to cut it too, but I asked him to
leave it. After a month, the plant gave its first fruits, some very big pumpkins.
These two stories for me were a lesson in patience, dedication, zeal, love and
mercy. As is the gospel of today. I planted the seeds, I watered them, I fertilized them, and I
saw them grow. And I did not want to lose them, or else, all my effort would go in vain.
God has this same love, zeal and dedication to each one of us. He always gives us second
chances if we repent.
Finally, the fig tree is each one of us. The fruit that is expected of us is a life of good
and just works according to the will of God. Let's meditate a moment, think that this barren
fig tree is you and let's ask ourselves these questions. Am I doing everything possible or all
I should do to bear fruit? Do I ask God to give me the opportunity to remove my attitudes,
cleanse them and return to the right path? Am I willing to change my life and really commit
myself to God to bear fruit in my life?
On this day, we ask God's forgiveness. Say: Lord Jesus, I recognize myself as a
sinner, with frequent temptations and falls. Like the barren fig tree, I do not give, Lord, the
expected fruits, but I trust that you have patience and will help me. As you give opportunity
to the fig tree, I ask you to remove my bad feelings and attitudes. Dig around me and pay
me with your love, dedicate your care to me, pruning everything that is not in your liking,
even if it hurts me. Come to me my Lord and help me follow you so that I might become
your child. I thank you for your love and mercy. Thank you for giving me the opportunity
to amend my life, thank you for correcting me and helping me to love again and in this way
to get closer to you. Amen.