Fig Trees And Root Knot Nematodes

Reflections on Romans 8:1-11 / Psalm 24:1B-2, 3-4AB, 5-6 /  Luke 13:1-9

by Frank D.B. Savadera, SJ

The Gospel today talks about a fig tree … so let’s talk about figs.  Recently, I’ve tasted a FIG … the fruit itself.  The fruit is almost the size but a bit smaller than your regular santol or chico … green in color but a bit reddish inside. The taste is almost a cross between and among a guava, a watermelon and a kiwi fruit.  Oh it was SWEET … at least those I’ve tasted.  What is so amazing about FIGS, as I observed it was they GREW ABUNDANTLY.  We were picking from the trees … and we were allowed to pick from trees ... precisely because there were just so plenty enough for everyone.  Free for all … pick a fig! 

    

My observation about figs is confirmed by professional gardeners in the net.  They say: “These fruit trees are among the easiest of the fruit trees that can be grown. They grow happily in both the ground or containers, making them perfect for all kinds of gardeners.”  Adding to this, the report says: “Fig tree maintenance is not a lot of work. Fig trees like full sunlight and adequate room for growth. You can plant your growing fig trees about 15 to 20 feet apart. If you are going to train your trees to be bushes instead, plant them 10 feet apart. Either way, there is little fig tree care you will have to administer.”

Huh!  Fig trees are easy to grow and maintain?  What’s with the Gospel?  There’s a fig tree standing there in the orchard and not bearing fruit.  What’s the problem? 

Again, we turn to professional agriculturists who suggest that non-fruit bearing fig trees may mean SERIOUS INFESTATION.  There is such a thing as a ROOT KNOT NEMATODE, apparently a parasitic, microscopic WORM that invades the soil and the roots of the plants in the soil.  A root knot nematode infestation, the report says … is probably one of the least talked about but very damaging of fig tree pests.  The pernicious effect of these pests almost always render the tree completely FRUITLESS.

Jesus was of course, talking about the fig tree in the context of those asking and pressing him to make a judgement about those who perished violently in recent upheavals of their time.  Those who suffer misfortune, Jews believe, deserve their fate because of their own sinfulness.  In the same way as we say:  Ayan nasagasaan kasi tatanga tanga!  Kasalanan nya!  A lot of misfortune happens to a lot of people, isn’t it?  In the case of the Gospel, some Galileans were killed by the troops of Pilate, their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.  Some were also just unfortunate to be under the tower of Siloam when the tower fell.  Do we say: Kasalanan nila dahil tatanga tanga sila?  Jesus says this is FRUITLESS!  This is SERIOUS INFESTATION!  You will need to repent and turn away from your OVER-RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS of others … and this is FRUITLESSNESS and you will be cut-down and perish!  

Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans today also says:  “Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”   This statement struck a very sensitive chord in my heart as I pondered:  Do I really wish to belong to God?  Do my actions, my words and my thoughts correspond to an almost trite and automatic assertion … that … YES … I wish to belong to Him.  How easy to say … and even easy to claim that we wish to belong to God … to serve Him … to minister to His Church … to perform wondrous deeds for the Lord and the Kingdom.  Ang Ganda … di ba?  But do we really belong to Him?  How is it like to belong to God?  Friends, I think we are asked to guard against SERIOUS INFESTATIONS of our ROOTS.    

There is also what we call PASSIVE NARCISSISM and AGGRESSIVE NARCICISSM …  both quite debilitating!  We can tend to isolate ourselves and/ or cause people so much pain by controlling and manipulating them.  This is FRUITLESSNESS that we cannot afford to live with … else we see ourselves slowly slowly dying. 

I think this is why our Psalm today can be quite   helpful a prayer and meditation for us:  Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.  We wish to focus on the face of Jesus … he who dares not pass over-righteous judgments on others … and instead wishes and desires the fig tree to grow and bear fruit more abundantly. 

A fig tree is easiest to grow and maintain.  What a joy to ponder on how it can bear fruit most abundantly … more than enough for others to share.  FREE FOR ALL … PICK A FIG.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

28th Week of Ordinary Time (Saturday 2015)

Reflections on  Romans 4:13, 16-18 /  Luke 12:8-12

by Frank D. B. Savadera, SJ

Of course, we know that the great Protestant Reformer and former Catholic priest Fr. Martin Luther was a scripture scholar who specialized in and read thoroughly Saint Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians.   He lived at a time of great corruption in the Church when rituals, practices and even the sacraments were administered to rampantly ensure the fattened pockets of a Church that wished to project itself as “colossal” in influence.  We have heard, of course of the dictum:  “At the sound of every silver coin that is dropped into the collection box, a soul in purgatory is saved.”   We all have our mistakes, don’t we … but Martin Luther’s reading of the Letters to the Galatians and our 1^st reading today, to the Romans made him to overly stress a notion of FAITH ALONE … SOLA FIDEI … Grace Alone … SOLA GRATIA as enough to ensure our salvation.  It was NOT through the law … not the rituals and practices … that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith (alone?). This is why we often hear our Protestant brothers and sisters asking and blurting:  DO YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST as your personal Lord and Saviour?... as if this ALONE … FAITH ALONE matters.  We are quick to always rebut however by saying that expressions of faith, for us, remain important. We refer as well to Scripture … in the Epistle of James in saying that FAITH without WORKS is USELESS.  Example:   I am convinced … and I have FAITH ... yet I do not participate in prayer … I do not engage in the life and ministry of the Church.  Faith without works and practice, we wish to assert … is USELESS.

It is in this context that we would like to interpret our Gospel today.  There is such a thing as an UNPARDONABLE SIN.  The evangelist Luke says:  Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the HOLY SPIRIT will not be forgiven.   What do we mean when we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?  In Scriptures, Jesus claims that he performs His miracles with the power of the Spirit yet those who do not believe claim that he performs these with the help of Belzeebul.  Such persons,  Jesus claims BLASPHEMED against the Holy Spirit.  You can speak against the son of Man and be forgiven but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 

Of course, we know that we are here to constantly discern the WILL of the SPIRIT.  Is that still true?  And our experiences must always speak to us about how the Lord is leading us, right?  (This is why we do the examen).   Can we also be guilty of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit … and eventually incur an UNAPARDONABLE SIN? 

Jesus continues to perform a lot of miracles in our lives.   Those originally with LONG FACES … now have HAPPY FACES.  Those who used to have happy faces … I don’t know if they are still happy.  But … everyone can actually observe that sometimes, we can be more QUIET and reflective.  I would like to believe that we are growing to be more PRAYERFUL. Is this true?  Some of us are able to challenge ourselves to do a lot of those crazy things that we thought we were incapable of doing in the past.  Isn't it a miracle to claim also that we are slowly slowly ... if we give ourselves the chance ...  getting to know more about ourselves and why we do the things that we do.   Are those miracles?  We would like to attribute these to the work of the Holy Spirit.   And more … the Gospel says:  Don’t worry about what you will say or do …. because the Holy Spirit will teach you what to say or do at each moment.  We also believe that the same Spirit leads and moves us to some direction that for now may not yet be too clear.  In trust and in faith, we would like to believe that we are getting there.  We cannot sin against the Spirit and deny all these things happening. 

Saint Ignatius of Bishop of Antioch was sentenced to be killed because of his beliefs.  But his torturers brought him, placed him in a cage with lions and wild beast and they all traveled to bring him from Syria to Rome.  LONG TRIP.  He says:  “From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated.”  He was a very old man. How was he able to endure this trip, write letters to Christian communities  and eventually accept his faith to die a martyr's death at the Colloseum in Rome.  We also know the Jesuit scholastic RICHIE FERNANDO speaking to us about his experience of Cambodia.  With great conviction, he says:  Now I know where my heart is! 

I guess the point is for us is this … we can not afford to incur the UNPARDONABLE SIN.   We can always believe in the Holy Spirit moving us and performing miracles in our lives.  What we can not deny however is that the Spirit calls us to go and move to someplace ... some state where He will ask us to do some mission of sort.  It will be blasphemy,  a source of our great sin NOT to listen to the prodings of the Spirit.  Much like the examples of the saints, we are called to march bravely toward where the spirit leads us.