DAILY GOSPEL COMMENTARY. THE PARABLE OF THE BARREN FIG TREE (Lk 13:1–9).

Gospel of Saturday, 29th week in Ordinary Time
Lk 13:1–9

The need for repentance (vv. 1-5)

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? (3) By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them — do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

The parable of the barren fig tree (vv. 6-9)

And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘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.’”

Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, Commentary of the Gospel of St. Luke (with permission)

1-5 Our Lord used current events in his teaching.
- The Galileans referred to here may be the same as mentioned in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (5:37). The episode was fairly typical of the times Jesus lived in, with Pilate sternly suppressing any sign of civil unrest.
- We do not know anything about the accident at Siloam other than what the Gospel tells us.
  - The fact that these people died in this way does not mean that they were worse than others, for God does not always punish sinners in this life (cf. Jn 9:3).
  - All of us are sinners, meriting a much worse punishment than temporal misfortune; we merit eternal punishment; but Christ has come to atone for our sins, he has opened the gates of heaven.
  - We must repent of our sins; otherwise God will not free us from the punishment we deserve. “When you meet with suffering, the Cross, your thought should be: what is this compared with what I deserve” (St. Josemaria Escrivá, The Way, 690).
3 “He tells us that, without Holy Baptism, no one will enter the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Jn 3:5); and, elsewhere, that if we do not repent we will all perish (Lk 13:3). This is all easily understood. Ever since man sinned, all his senses rebel against reason; therefore, if we want the flesh to be controlled by the spirit and by reason, it must be mortified; if we do not want the body to be at war with the soul, it and all our senses need to be chastened; if we desire to go to God, the soul with all its faculties needs to be mortified” (St John Mary Vianney, Selected Sermons, Ash Wednesday).
6-9 Our Lord stresses that we need to produce plenty of fruit (cf. Lk 8:11-15) in keeping with the graces we have received (cf. Lk 12:48). But he also tells us that God waits patiently for this fruit to appear; he does not want the death of the sinner; he wants him to be converted and to live (Ezek 33:11) and, as St Peter teaches, he is “forebearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
- But God’s clemency should not lead us to neglect out duties and become lazy and comfort-seeking, living sterile lives. He is merciful, but he is also just and he will punish failure to respond to his grace.
  - “There is one case that we should be especially sorry about — that of Christians who could do more and don’t; Christians who could live all the consequences of their vocation as children of God, but refuse to do so through lack of generosity. We are partly to blame, for the grace of faith has not been given us to hide but to share with others (cf. Mt 5:1 5f). We cannot forget that the happiness of these people, in this life and in the next, is at stake. The Christian life is a divine wonder with immediate promises of satisfaction and serenity — but on condition that we know how to recognize the gift of God (cf. Jn 4:10) and be generous, not counting the cost” (St. Josemaria Escrivá, Christ is passing by, 147).

Gospel commentary from F. Fernández-Carajal, In Conversation with God, vol. 5, 54.1

The fig tree symbolizes Israel; the Chosen People who had failed to correspond to Yahweh’s countless invitations.
The parable also applies to Christians who isolate themselves in their own selfishness, who wash their hands of the apostolic mission God has entrusted to them, and fail to bring their supernatural gifts to fruition.
- Yahweh is the owner of the vineyard. The fig tree represents anyone who does not heed the Lord’s call to bear fruit.
- The Lord sites the tree in the best location for bearing fruit. He provides all the attention and graces required. We are the subject of God’s assistance from the very moment of our conception. He gives us a Guardian Angel to protect us all our days. He gives us the immense grace of Baptism, perhaps a few days after our birth. He gives himself to us in Holy Communion and through the entire course of our Christian formation … Then there are the innumerable gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit that we have received.
Despite all this care and cultivation, it is possible that the Lord may find we have borne little fruit in our life.
- Maybe he will find only bitter fruit. It is possible that our personal situation may reflect that prophetic metaphor of Isaiah: Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He digged it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
- It produced sour fruit. What was the reason for this bad harvest, when everything had been done to ensure that it would be a good one? St Ambrose has written that the cause of spiritual sterility can frequently be traced to pride and hardness of heart.
In spite of these disappointments God returns with renewed generosity time and time again to look for results. This is the patience of God towards souls.
- He does not become discouraged by our lack of correspondence. He knows how to wait. He sees our faults and failings but he also sees our capacity for doing good. The Lord never gives up on any soul. He trusts us through thick and thin.

VIDEO COMMENTARY

TOPIC: Are you singing a different tune in God’s orchestra?

In today’s first reading (Ephesians 4:7-16), St. Paul talks about how we are all different parts of the Body of Christ – different in talents, skills and temperament, but all working to build up His kingdom.

In the last few days, St. Paul has been teaching about unity. He has seen how the local churches he has established in the areas he went to have had their leaders disagreeing, fighting and forming factions. He knows that one of the birth pains of change – because his teachings are new and radical, about a man of simple origins taking the world of that time by storm – is disunity.

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