Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15
Luke 13:1-9
This week the Church lays before us a parable that can challenge and comfort us in equal measure. The parable of the Fig tree is particular to Luke and its message comes at a stage in Lent when my initial fervour is usually starting to wane a little.
A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, ‘Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’
We have probably all had the experience of something that has flourished despite the fact that we didn’t give it the attention that it needed. Likewise some plants and shrubs can look as if they are dead and then they surprise us with a spurt of growth. The parable is in a slightly different mode, things aren’t being left to chance, there is oversight from the gardener and expectation from the vineyard owner. As with many parables, our instinct can be to work out which character represents God and to work from there. I am resisting doing this here and focusing instead on the gentleness and humility of the gardener. The gardener has his own methods. There is no overnight solution. The gardener knows his craft.
I am put in mind here of the Rule of St Benedict and his implicit teaching on mercy. In Chapters 27& 28 on the excommunicated St Benedict speaks of the Abbot being a wise physician. As any doctor would, he is to try a number of remedies. The abbot is to use ‘compresses, the ointment of encouragement, the medicine of divine Scripture.’ You get a real sense of Benedict being interested in the body and the soul. Drastic action can be needed for the good of the whole. Clearly one size does not fit all and the abbot is to adapt himself to each monk as is needed.
The more I turn this parable over in my heart and my mind, the more dimensions I discover. The phrase ‘leave it one more year’ resonates very much with me. A year speaks to me of several seasonal cycles, several opportunities for something to happen. I can see myself as the fig tree, the soil, the vineyard owner and the gardener. Each one of these says something to me about the opportunity for pruning and growth during Lent.
Are there situations in your own life that you are be invited to ‘leave one more year’?