Fruitless Fruit Trees ~ reflex on Luke 13:1-9

Some people in Jesus’ time believed that there was a direct correlation between a person’s sins and their sufferings – sick people must surely have sinned and were receiving what they deserved; the Galileans killed by Pilate’s soldiers must have deserved it too! On the other hand, those for whom everything was going well must be doing everything right, and being blessed by God because of their goodness. Sound familiar? Some preachers today tell us that if only we will embrace their version of the Gospel (and generously contribute to their cause!), God will bless us with financial security, the life we want, and even the car we’ve been dreaming of driving. But, no.

Jesus (and subsequently the Church) tells us that personal suffering is not necessarily the result of personal sin. He himself was subject to poverty and suffering and death! On the contrary, suffering can often be a sign of God’s blessing: He chastises those whom He loves (Heb 12:6, Prov 3:12, Rev 3:19), so that they grow even closer to Him. Jesus even says that if we are to follow him, we must “take up our cross” every day (Matt 16: 24, Luke 9:23); if you are carrying a cross, you are not skipping to your next selfish distraction, you are not refusing to suffer; you are carrying it to your own execution! Far from being the result of our own sinfulness, suffering can be a way to walk with Jesus, to rely on Jesus, to “die to ourselves,” and become less selfward and more generous, to become more like HIM.

So Jesus says that those Galileans were NOT greater sinners than others! But tragedy IS the lot of those who refuse to repent of their sins. If we are sinners, we are like bad trees that bear no fruit in the orchard of God’s Kingdom. Fruit trees are planted with the expectation that they will bear fruit. What is the point of a fruitless fruit tree? Why would it be left in place to exhaust the soil? The parable shows us that fruitless fruit trees (and we are all in this category at some season of our lives!) are left in place in the hope that, with some additional cultivation and fertilization and sometimes painful pruning (John 15:2), with grace and sacrament and love, we will repent and open ourselves to all that the Lord has created us to be, and will bear the good fruit He calls us to bring forth.

In His infinite patience and loving mercy, we are given hope and a future.

Today (October 22) is also the Optional Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, whose public suffering serves as an example of bearing one’s cross with Christ, and certainly a fruitful fruit tree in the Kingdom of God!