Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2024

Luke 13, 1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “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! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ ”

“The Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.”  This incident does not appear to have been recorded in history.  However, it certainly does accord with what we know of Pontius Pilate, who instigated massacres against both the Jews and the Samaritans throughout his time as procurator in Israel.  The Jewish historian Josephus does mention how an attempt by Pilate to steal money from the Temple treasury tο fund an aqueduct resulted in a riot in which several worshippers were killed.  The people speaking to Jesus might have been referring to that event.  “The tower at Siloam.”  Siloam was a neighborhood in Jerusalem.  We have for our source on the collapse of the tower there only the Gospel of Luke.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?”  The Lord’s question indicates that the people were asking him the reason for why God allowed such terrible things as this to happen.   The people’s supposed that God was punishing them for some sin.  We see this same attitude in the Book of Job, where Job has suffered the loss of his family and property and his friends tell him that his were the cause.  The Lord disabuses the people of this notion: “By no means!”  He uses these incidents to teach a lesson: “If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  That is, without time for a last minute prayer of repentance.

“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard.”  Fig trees are common in the land of Israel and so the Lord might have simply meant a fruit tree, which the Hebrew word allows.  But we can also understand the fig tree as a figure for Israel, as the Jews themselves did, or as the individual sinner.  “He came in search of fruit on it but found none.”  The Lord brought the Hebrews into the Promised Land and gave them the Law.  But Israel did not bear fruit: they lapsed into adultery on occasion and otherwise disobeyed the Law God had given them.  They even rejected the Redeemer he had sent to them.  Or, a person was baptized and brought into the Church but fell away from the practice of the Faith.  “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down.”  By these “three years” we can understand the three ages since Moses: the first, from Moses to David; the second, from David to the Fall of Jerusalem; the third, from the Fall of Jerusalem to the present day.  We can also see these as the three years of the Lord’s Public Life during which he called the people to repentance.  In terms of the sinner, these years might mean childhood, youth, and adulthood.  Through all this time, Almighty God had offered many opportunities for repentance, but these had been rejected.

“So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?”  The Father says this to the Son.  Jesus represents his Father as disgusted with the tree that does not bear fruit.  Its very presence in the garden grieves him and he wants it cut down and tossed outside the garden to rot.  This is unrepentant Israel, rejected by Almighty God — or, rather, God’s acceptance of unrepentant Israel’s and the sinner’s rejection of him.  But the Son intercedes: “I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”  The Son cultivates the ground with his Cross and fertilizes the tree with his Blood: he offers his life for Israel and the sinner, and provides abundant graces for conversion.  But if even this is not enough, “You can cut it down.”  That is, at the Last Judgment.