The Clock is Ticking

The Clock is Ticking
March 24, 2019     3rd Sunday in Lent - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi   

There’s an ominous tone in both St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and in St. Luke’s Gospel today: repent, or else:  “(W)hoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”  “I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  These scriptures make for great fire and brimstone preaching. Makes me want to go and stand on a street corner with a bible in one hand and a bullhorn in the other, shouting “REPENT, YE SINNERS!  YOU’RE GOING TO HELL!”   

But are these scriptures particularly harsh?  Not really – in fact, I would say that these passages should inspire hope.  Throughout his ministry, Jesus frequently talked about the urgency of turning away from sin and orienting oneself toward God.  We hear it in many of his parables, like the one of the ten virgins with oil lamps – 5 are wise and 5 are foolish.  We see it in his parable of the rich fool who builds bigger barns to store his harvest but dies before he can enjoy it. We see it in the story of the head of the household who is prepared before the thief can break in.

Being ready to die is a foundational theme throughout all of the Old and New Testament – God calls us to Himself; we wander from Him to follow our own pursuits; God warns of the consequences of our actions and then calls us once more to His Love.  Again and again, God gives us a choice.  Through our free will, we can choose to accept God’s Love, or not. And sooner or later, we will have to choose.  We just don’t get an unlimited amount of time for making that choice.

The Bible is, in one sense, a collection of love stories of God for us. These stories necessarily contain warnings, reminding us that our time on Earth is limited, not because Earth IS heaven and there’s only so much time to enjoy it, but rather because it is NOT heaven and we risk missing out on what is ours by our birthright as children of God.  God WANTS us to receive what has been prepared for us from the beginning of time, for as scripture says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Today’s Gospel, though, is often misunderstood, especially the second portion, the parable of the gardener and the fig tree.  It sounds as if God the Father is the owner of the orchard, God the Son is the gardener, and we are the fig tree – at first glance, it seems like a reasonable assumption.  But the dialogue between the two – Father and Son, owner and gardener – makes it look like God is of two minds in conflict with each other.  The owner: “cut it down”. The gardener: “give it more time.”  The owner demands justice: “why should it exhaust the land?”  The gardener begs for mercy: “give it another year.”

But Jesus is making a point: the owner isn’t God the Father, but rather the owner represents the earthly mentality of the people who say “Produce or else.” It's the gardener who is God, showing His mercy. He’s saying, “As long as you can hear My voice, you still have a chance.”  And, if you listen to God and allow His love and mercy to work in you, you will be saved – not in your earthly existence, but in your heavenly reward for all eternity.

It is from this perspective that we can then look at the first part of today’s Gospel.  The people bring news of a shocking current event to Jesus – a senseless and disgusting act of violence by Pilate which outraged them, just like our reaction to the report of 50 people murdered in the recent New Zealand Mosque shootings.  The people then, like us today, struggled to understand why God would allow something like that to happen.  But instead of explaining, Jesus compares it to another tragic event that the people would be familiar with in which people died, not at the hands of another person, but from a violent act of nature – the collapse of a tower in Siloam.  Their reaction was probably just like our reaction to the news of those killed as a result of the Cyclone in Mozambique last week.

We want to blame someone when something bad happens, and it’s easy to blame someone when it is a senseless act of violence. We can clamor for justice in our earthly kingdoms to satisfy our personal sense of righteousness.  But, an Act of Nature?  An Act of God? Should we blame God?

Jesus’ reply to the people seems harsh, for he is in effect saying, “It is not important about WHY it happened as it is that it DID happen.” From God’s perspective, there will always be tragic events which may unexpectedly cut short our lives or those who are closest to us.  But whether death is sudden and tragic, or at the end of a long life, we will one day have to move on to our next destination, and Jesus is more concerned about that – and we should be too.  He wants us prepared, and his entire ministry up to and including his Passion – his death and resurrection – nurtures us and gives us everything we need in order to find and keep the treasure of His kingdom.  God wants us with him.

Ultimately, today’s readings are readings of hope, of promise.  As long as we can hear His voice, we still have the chance to repent and bear good fruit.  We can still accept His Love, just as the good thief did on the cross beside Jesus.  There is still time.

But, the clock is ticking.