Friday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, June 2, 2023

Mark 11, 11-26

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”

The events recorded in this Gospel Reading follow the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  St. Mark and the other Evangelists see Jesus as the true Messiah who has come to save his people from an enemy far more dangerous than the Romans — their sins.  Mark, especially, presents the Lord Jesus as one who possesses complete authority, entering Jerusalem to acclaim and taking a tour of the city, looking around at everything as though to ensure that it was as he would have it.  But rather than stay in Jerusalem overnight, he returns to Bethany, more than likely to the house of his friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.  He acts as a prince before his coronation in this way.

“When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs.”  The fig tree represents Israel in the same way that a cedar tree represents Lebanon and the eagle represents the U.S.  The Lord looks at the fig tree and from his actions and words we can know what he thought of Israel at that time.  “He found nothing but leaves.”  That is, at first glance the tree might be thought to have figs.  It seemed fruitful from the outside.  But a close look revealed that it was not.  This was Israel: despite God bringing the people out of Egypt with great signs and miracles, after giving them the Law and their land, after protecting them with the judges and correcting them with the prophets, after bringing them back from Babylon where they had been exiled for their faithlessness, the nation is without fruit.  That is, it is a nation which simulated worship to God in its Temple, but the priesthood and its leaders were thoroughly corrupt and the people led astray.  “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!”  The Lord does not cause Israel to remain fruitless — faithless — but will do nothing further to make it fruitful.  It has run out of time.  The Lord will make a new people for himself who will bear fruit.  “It was not the time for figs.”  Mark ties the miracle of the cursed fig tree to the Lord’s teaching on the power of prayer and leaves us to see what we can make of this miracle and what meaning it has for us.  Now, the Lord cursed the fig tree when it was not the time for figs: how much more will he curse a fig tree which has no figs when it is time for them!  The Jews should have received the Lord with joy.  The Prophets all spoke of him and John the Baptist pointed him out.  His miracles and his teaching were authoritative and powerful.  But for the most part, they — particularly their leaders and teachers — were not ready.  Now, we are even more prepared for the Lord’s second coming than the Jews were nor his first.  We have the Holy Church which he established, the Gospels, a long line of holy men and women who gave their lives to God.  But will we be ready — fruitful with faith — when he comes?  Or will we receive the terrible curse recorded in Matthew 25, 41: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.”  We must apply for his grace in the Sacrament of Penance to drive out the beasts that inhabit us: lust, pride, envy, and the like.  And we must pray for what we need for salvation.  This is the true meaning of his words “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’  . . . it shall be done for him.”  It is a greater miracle for a person to convert and become a saint than for a mountain to he thrown into the sea.