3rd Sunday of Lent Year C - 3/3/2013 - Gospel: Lk 13: 1-9
Buying time
With money we can buy most material things such as property and food and clothing. Money itself has its own limitations about non material values but it has no power whatsoever over the spiritual world.
We all need love and happiness for our physical and spiritual well being. Materials of this world are supposed to serve as a vehicle to help us discerning God's love in the world but some are mistaken for believing that materials of this world can offer love and happiness. The material world offers some comfort and makes life easier but it is not always the case. We can't deny the reality of the burden of stress and pressure that we all experience from time to time. To ease the heavy burden of life Jesus offers us the everlasting love and happiness which we can obtain from the spiritual world and that will bring inner peace and liberation. Inner peace can be obtained through openness to God, to nature, to one another and to have faith in Jesus and practice his teaching. When we place our faith in Jesus we know the way, truth and life because Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life. His way becomes our way. His truth liberates us from life's heavy burden and His life giving offers us the life everlasting. When fail to follow the teaching of Jesus we lose the inner peace. Jesus doesn't abandon us but gives us time to come back to him. The way of regaining for the inner peace is to buy time. How can we buy when there is no seller? The dialogue between the master and the gardener helps to solve the problem.
For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground. Sir, the man replied: leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it; it may bear fruit next year, if not, then you can cut it down. V.7-9
One more time is what the gardener asks of his master for mercy. One more time enables us to change, abandon our own affairs and self focussed to make God, who is the priority in our lives. Buying time doesn't mean the 25th hour of a day. It means God's mercy born out of God's love given to us freely and God is active, patiently waiting for us to respond to God's love, to make a move, returning to God. God's mercy has the power to change our lives for the better, to make anew our lives and for better productivity. How often the Church offers us 'one more time'? It happens yearly at different liturgical seasons. It is the time to ponder God's mercy and love that is truly present in our lives and our troubled world. The Church offers it year after year calling us to return to God, to abandon our own will and to adopt God's will, to make anew our lives and return to God who is the Way, Truth and Life.
We all need love and happiness for our physical and spiritual well being. Materials of this world are supposed to serve as a vehicle to help us discerning God's love in the world but some are mistaken for believing that materials of this world can offer love and happiness. The material world offers some comfort and makes life easier but it is not always the case. We can't deny the reality of the burden of stress and pressure that we all experience from time to time. To ease the heavy burden of life Jesus offers us the everlasting love and happiness which we can obtain from the spiritual world and that will bring inner peace and liberation. Inner peace can be obtained through openness to God, to nature, to one another and to have faith in Jesus and practice his teaching. When we place our faith in Jesus we know the way, truth and life because Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life. His way becomes our way. His truth liberates us from life's heavy burden and His life giving offers us the life everlasting. When fail to follow the teaching of Jesus we lose the inner peace. Jesus doesn't abandon us but gives us time to come back to him. The way of regaining for the inner peace is to buy time. How can we buy when there is no seller? The dialogue between the master and the gardener helps to solve the problem.
For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground. Sir, the man replied: leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it; it may bear fruit next year, if not, then you can cut it down. V.7-9
One more time is what the gardener asks of his master for mercy. One more time enables us to change, abandon our own affairs and self focussed to make God, who is the priority in our lives. Buying time doesn't mean the 25th hour of a day. It means God's mercy born out of God's love given to us freely and God is active, patiently waiting for us to respond to God's love, to make a move, returning to God. God's mercy has the power to change our lives for the better, to make anew our lives and for better productivity. How often the Church offers us 'one more time'? It happens yearly at different liturgical seasons. It is the time to ponder God's mercy and love that is truly present in our lives and our troubled world. The Church offers it year after year calling us to return to God, to abandon our own will and to adopt God's will, to make anew our lives and return to God who is the Way, Truth and Life.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia