Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.
We know that the purpose of the fig tree is to bear fruit, not thorns or brambles (see Luke 6:44). Good trees should bear good fruit by their very nature, acting in a way consistent with their identity. Yet it is often the case in our world that the owner of the vineyard discovers fig trees without fruit. The fig trees seem to be voting against their own continued existence as fig trees by failing to do what fig trees are meant to do. In the parable from Luke the owner of the vineyard was all to ready to accede to this vote and cut them down so that they didn't drain resources that could be reallocated to those trees who did bear fruit.
And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.
Fortunately the vinedresser took the part of these barren trees. He knew that the soil in which they had grown thus far was depleted of nutrients, that the trees struggled to live at all, much less bear fruit. His solution was not glamorous. If the trees indeed got a vote they may well have objected to the sort of care he offered. They may not have had fruit, but at least they stood tall as trees. This fertilizer required humility to endure. It was not only a judgment that these trees were not in fact OK as they were it also presented a solution that would be challenging to endure. The vinedresser could perhaps save these proud but fruitless trees by digging out the worldly securities of the dirt surrounding them and filling the soil with manure. Could it be this be the tree equivalent of counting all things as counting all things as, depending on the translation, rubbish, garbage, or indeed dung in order that Christ might be gained for Paul?
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ (see Philippians 3:8)
Once all that we previously counted as gain is seen in its proper perspective it really can become fertilizer for our growth and bearing good fruit. When the blessings of the world are viewed as dung compared to Christ they do not cease to help us grow. It is rather that we are no longer tempted to have anything from them but the growth they can provide. They now seem to us, as it were, to smell. We recognize that they aren't really sanitary to touch. But in the right context, when applied to us by the vinedresser, they can help in the process of producing fruit.
When their buds burst open,
you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
in the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that the Kingdom of God is near.
When we see fruit beginning to bud on the fig trees we know it means that the vinedresser is at work, whether in the Church or in our hearts. It is, after all, only through the Holy Spirit that we bear fruit fit for the Kingdom. The vinedresser skilled at pruning us, at making our past into fertilizer for our futures, but also and especially at keeping our connection to the source of life as the primary concern. Apart from the living water of the Spirit we die. Or, as we discover in another parable, cut off from the vine we whither.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (see John 15:5).
The fact that Jesus is at work in the world tending his vine means that summer is near. We ourselves are a generation which will, at least as individuals, behold the coming of the Son of Man, if not for the world as a whole, nevertheless in his Sacramental presence in the Church, and when he comes for each of us at the end of our lives. His activity in helping us bear fruit is meant to make us eager for more as the first signs as summer foretell the end of a winter, however long and dark it may have been.
There is much in the world that makes us forget about the imminent coming of the summer of eternity. Nevertheless, whatever immense beasts seem to be ruling our world presently, they are utterly unable to challenge the power and the reign of the Son of Man. When we are tempted to be afraid, to hunker down, and ignore the duty to bear fruit we are called to stand erect and raise our heads, looking to the coming of the Son of Man.
One like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
It is in this Kingdom, his Church, that we now live. It is not yet fully summer. It may indeed look like the depths of winter. But look to the fig tree! See its branches laden with fruit and know, with the surety of words that will not pass away, that summer is coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment