Friday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
May 27, 2016 8:30am
Today’s gospel passage really
needs some explanation.
At first look, Jesus doesn’t come
across very well.
He sees this fig tree and Saint
Mark notes that figs were not yet in season.
But Jesus seems to want a fig,
there are no figs on the tree, and so he utters a curse on the tree.
Wow!
This looks like letting the
desire for instant gratification really get out of control.
Or, maybe not!
One Scripture commentator offers a
helpful insight.
In the Old Testament, the fig
tree was an image for God’s people.
God expected his people to be
responsive to his calling.
So what is going on here is Jesus
showing his frustration with his own people.
The fig tree scene is symbolic of
this.
In fact, it is connected with the
cleaning out of the temple that happens next.
Jesus doesn’t want just empty
ritual, and that apparently is what he sees going on here: empty ritual, and
not real, from-the-heart prayer.
This is a core part of the
unresponsiveness of his people – what makes them like a barren fig tree.
And this is why Jesus then goes
into a teaching on prayer.
He wants his people, and us to
really pray from the heart.
And he is saying that he wants
two traits in our prayer.
He wants us to trust in God.
Maybe we will not get all the
“things” we want, but we are to trust that God will be with us and take care of
us no matter what.
And finally, Jesus says that when
we pray, we are to forgive.
We are to realize in the presence
of God that we ourselves are imperfect and therefore, that should lead us to be
forgiving of others.
So, there’s a lot more going on
in this passage than first meets the eye.
