Homily: Friday of the 34th Week in OT - The Kingdom Bursting Open

The fig tree was a an important and common source of food for the people of Israel.  It bore food twice a year: in the autumn and in the early spring.  The fig tree is used throughout scripture as a sign of Israel itself.  When Israel is faithful, she bears fruit, like the fig tree.  Jesus, in a parable, curses a fig tree and it whithers to show that when we are unfaithful to God, when we ignore his commands, when we do not recognize the authority of Christ to transform our lives, we become like a barren tree. 

According to Jewish tradition, the fig tree yields its first fruits right after Passover.  And the Jews believed that when the Messiah came, he would usher in the Kingdom of God at Passover time, when the fig tree was bearing fruit.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the buds of the fig tree burst open as a sign of the Kingdom of God.  This parable foretells the joy of God’s kingdom.  The joy of new life and the promise of an eternal age of peace and blessing.

The fig tree bearing fruit is evident to all those who can see it.  So too, the coming of God’s kingdom is evident to all those who can see it.

This parable comes at the end of the 21^st chapter of Luke.  Jesus had just foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, he tells of the awful calamities which will precede the end of the world and his second coming, he tells how his followers will be persecuted; that Christians will be hated because of his name; and at the great tribulation there will be signs in the sky, people will die of fright.

At the same time, Jesus says the kingdom of God is bursting open in their midst.

So too in our own time amidst all of the news of political strife, social turmoil, shootings, natural disasters, amidst all of our own personal experience of physical and emotional illness, addiction, vice, brokenness in families, the kingdom of God is still bursting open.

Amidst all of the awfulness, there are men and women who are dedicated to God’s Word, who are bearing fruit in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit.  The Church really is like the eye of the hurricane.  Amidst all of the chaos and evil that surrounds us, peace, joy, and righteousness are available to all those who are receptive to God’s Word.

In less than 48 hours we will pass into the new liturgical year, the season of advent, the season of peaceful waiting, a season of expectation.  May we prepare our hearts for the special graces of the advent season, with a burning desire for all that God has in store for us, for the ways that he desires his kingdom to burst open in our lives, that we may bear fruit that will last, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.