A new look at an old Parable in Today’s Reading helps many be Catholic:
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Question 1: “What ‘new meaning’ do we see in Luke 13:1-9?”
Answer: “First, we see that Jesus is telling me to repent for my sins: ‘Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus said to them in reply, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!’”
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Question 2: “Were those ‘Galileans’ described by the historian Josephus?
Answer: “May all Catholics be blessed to read the great Jewish historian, Josephus. He tells us Pilate killed many believers in the Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII (4:1): and he tells us about Jesus in Antiquities 18.3.3: ‘Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.’ He also tells how Pilate ‘condemned Jesus to the cross.’ By a miracle, his surviving writings still lead many to believe Josephus became Catholic after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.”
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Question 2: “Did Jesus give another example of unrepentant people being killed?”
Answer: “‘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!’”
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Question 3: “Did Jesus tell us what we must do to be saved?”
Answer: “‘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?’
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Question 4: “Is God The Father the ‘orchard’s owner’? Is ‘the gardener’ His Son, Jesus? Is the ‘fruit’ obedient human souls?”
Answer: “Catholics understand that and what The Son said to The Father: ‘He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it (with My Blood!); it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
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Question 5: “What do Catholics see in their ‘new look’ at that old parable?”
Answer: “In the 2,000 years since Jesus, those who love themselves more than God have ‘cut’ themselves ‘down’ because they refused to obey His Church-Creating Word to His First Catholic Pope: ‘And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.’
Catholics are blessed to realize that God has automated the “pruning process”.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “God cuts down all who avoid Him. / Can there be a more self-hurting sin?”
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