Bearing Fruit Through Forthright RepentanceRead Time 9 min

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9

“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!” (Luke 13:2-3)

One reads this and is not sure whether to be relieved or concerned. On the one hand, our Lord makes clear that the terrible sufferings endured by a group of Galilean pilgrims whom Pilate apparently massacred and then used their blood to desecrate their temple sacrifices, and those endured by 18 unfortunate people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and got crushed by a tumbling tower, were not some sort of divine retribution for their extraordinary sinfulness.

In other words, suffering is not necessarily a sign of divine punishment, as some might assume. A man born blind is not being punished by God for his sins or the sins of his parents. To the contrary, Jesus retorts, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” (John 9:2-4) Christ comes to redeem suffering. He is “close to the broken-hearted.” (Psalm 34:18) “Blessed are they …” (cf. Matthew 5:3-12) Indeed, he reveals God’s glory through suffering by uniting himself to it on the Cross and making it the means of our salvation — the ultimate spiritual jujitsu in which he conquers death by death. As the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, “he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14)

On the other hand, Jesus goes on to tell the people posing these questions that if they do not repent of their sins, they will perish like the ill-fated Galileans or the 18 who were crushed. He is speaking here of spiritual death. Sin does not cause divinely inflicted physical tragedy, though it often is its own bitter pill. It does cause spiritual tragedy by which our souls run the risk of perishing forever if we do not repent.

Our Lord is not mincing words here. He is providing us sharp warning of the necessity of repentance. Our eternal salvation is on the line. The Church gives us this good medicine midway through Lent in order to shake us out of the stupor of presumption. “There are two kinds of presumption,” the Catechism tells us. “Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).” (CCC 2092)

God’s mercy is an infinite ocean, but we have to accept it by cultivating the spiritual ground around us, fertilizing our souls with God’s grace and bearing the spiritual fruit we have been made to bear. If not, we will be cut down like the fig tree planted in the orchard but exhausting the soil. The time to get serious about bearing the spiritual fruit we should be bearing is now, since we know not whether this Lent might be our last. (cf. Luke 13:1-9)

Just because we have been baptized and partake of the Eucharist does not mean we will enter the Promised Land, as Paul makes clear in this week’s second reading, reflecting upon the foreshadowing experience of the Israelites. “Our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. […] Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 12)

Heartfelt repentance is the means of standing secure without falling — of bearing fruit in the garden in which we have been planted. The Catechism describes well what it looks like: “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).” (CCC 1431)

“Crucial” (or “cross-shaped, decisive”) “compunction” (or “sharp pricking”) of the heart and soul. This is the invitation our Lord gives us this week, looking us right between the eyes and not allowing us to skirt the issue a second longer. Repent or perish. And trust that Christ the gardener is for us, not against us, in the cultivation of the garden of our soul. (cf. Luke 13:7-9)