We are well into the Lenten Season today as we celebrate the Third Sunday. Traditionally the observance of this season has been measured by the amount of sacrifice, or giving up that a person takes on for these forty days. However I think that today’s gospel offers a different perspective on how we can observe Lent.
Jesus tells an interesting parable in Luke’s Gospel. He talks about a fig tree. The owner of the garden has watched the tree for three years and it has not born any fruit. He tells the gardener to cut it down because it’s just taking up valuable space and producing no results. But the gardener knows that if he cultivates around it and feeds it nutrients it will eventually bear fruit.
As we all move along on this spiritual journey, there are times when we too think that we are stagnant, that nothing is happening or that God is silent, that we are not bearing any fruit. It would be easy to just abandon ship, cut down the fig tree of our spirituality out of frustration.
But the gospel today encourages us to give ourselves another chance. To look, during these Lenten days, and see what we already do to keep our faith life alive: Where have we found God in our life experience? In nature, in our loved ones, in our prayer life? Lent is the season to spend some extra time in those places where we have traditionally experienced God.
That is how we nourish and cultivate our relationship with God. That is how we give ourselves another chance at growing and bearing much fruit.
An image that is often used in the scriptures is that of the tree planted near a stream. It reaches out its roots toward the water and receives the nourishment it need to live and thrive. So when we reach out to the Lord and seek His nourishment we will live and thrive and bear much fruit.
May these days of our Lenten Journey truly invigorate our spiritual lives and may we come to share the fruit of our labor and enliven the world in which we live.