‘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.’”

Luke 13:8-9

Luke 13:1-19

Reflection

In part of the Gospel today, Jesus tells a parable about a man who owns a fig tree that bears no fruit for three years, and so decides to cut it down. But his gardener asks to leave the tree for another year to see if it will bear fruit after he tends to it.

Sometimes we might imagine ourselves as the barren fig tree. After months and years of tending to our spiritual life, we might not see any visible fruit and become discouraged. It is then that we may decide to stop what we are doing and give up. At that moment, the gardener of our soul, Jesus, comes along and asks if he can tend to us.

When we become disheartened about the lack of apparent growth or fruit in our spiritual lives, it is easy to want to give up. However, not all our efforts will bear visible fruit immediately, and great patience is required. Our interior life is a lifelong journey that takes diligence, patience, and love to prosper.

If you are struggling with your faith or prayer life right now, ask Jesus to help you persevere. Taking it one day at a time, you will grow closer to Christ and more deeply fall in love with him.

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Saint of the Day

St. Alfred the Great: 848 – 899

“For in prosperity a man is often puffed up with pride, whereas tribulations chasten and humble him through suffering and sorrow. In the midst of prosperity the mind is elated, and in prosperity a man forgets himself; in hardship he is forced to reflect on himself, even though he be unwilling. In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness.”

St. Alfred, pray for us!