Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
If we look closely at Holy Scripture, we can observe that there is a profoundly nuanced balance between the infinite love and mercy of God and our personal responsibility to cultivate our lives in accordance with God’s desires for us. It can be a very tricky, delicate balancing act to properly hold these two realities in tension.
In the Gospel parable today, we are presented with a fig tree that isn’t producing fruit and the owner is getting frustrated. The created purpose of the tree is to flourish and produce good fruit. We too were created to flourish in a particular way and bear good fruit in our lives through our relationships with God and others.
Note carefully the counsel of the gardener in this passage. He advocates for mercy, patience, and loving tenderness to the tree. Even when it’s not doing what it’s supposed to, he’s going to treat it with even greater especial care. The gardener is going to do everything he possibly can to arrange circumstances such that the tree has every possible chance to bear fruit.
At the same time, the expectation for the tree remains: it is still required to bear good fruit. The gardener does not say, “let the tree do what it pleases, even though it continue in this fruitless state forever.” God is infinitely generous and merciful with us and does everything He can to gently lead us into relationship with Himself. At the same time, at the end of the day, the ball is ultimately in our court. We have to assent to the relationship and actively work to cultivate it throughout the course of our everyday lives.