Fruitful or fruitless?

Today’s Parable of the Fig Tree (Lk. 13:6-9) is so meaningful for each one of us individually, and for all of us as a nation.

As the owner of the orchard, God the Father planted each one of us there, so that in due time each one of us would bear fruit – fruit with the imprint of God’s love. He even sent His own son to sacrifice His very life and be the loving, compassionate Gardener who would take care of the fig trees – you and me.

Some of the trees responded to the Gardener’s care and bore fruit. Others rejected the Gardener’s care and bore no fruit. In due time, after prolonged and patient tending by the Gardener, the Owner came, preserved the fruit-bearing fig trees, and uprooted the non-fruit-bearing ones, for the latter were of no use.

And so it is with each one of us individually, and all of us as a nation.

INDIVIDUALLY. How am I as a fig tree in God’s orchard? Am I bearing fruit as a response to His Son’s loving care and nourishment? And if so, am I producing fruit that the Owner of the vineyard will be happy with? Am I a courageous, living witness of God’s LOVE and JUSTICE, moving toward His designed PEACE on earth?

I must learn to be an authentic lover. And for this to happen, I must first allow myself to experience being loved by God – loved in my uniqueness as a person, with both my strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, I would not have been born at all if God did not love me in the first place.

It is the inner awareness and felt experience of this that moves my heart to love God in return – and to love all that He loves. As the late contemporary mystic Henri Nouwen put it: "The radical breakthrough will come when I love God enough to love His every image on earth, when I see in every broken body, in all starved flesh, in every anguished person, the crucified Christ. Only then will I do what Thomas Merton saw must be done: ‘Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy’.?"

Yes, how can I not respond to Christ who loved me unconditionally, to the extent that He allowed Himself to be tortured and crucified beyond all human reckoning – for the sake of us all?

The heartless way that he was tortured and killed, and the cruel injustice of it all, moves me to be a relentless advocate of justice, especially justice for the powerless. This is the other side of love. In other words, justice is the manifestation of true love. And with love and justice in place, peace comes about as the fruit of it all. God’s ultimate design for His universe.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for showing us the way – at the sacrifice of your own life.

AS A NATION. Without the shadow of a doubt, I know in my deepest faith that God planted the seeds of love, justice, and peace in our land throughout those historic days of EDSA I and EDSA 2. And as we look back, we cannot help but be amazed with awe and wonderment how we as a people were able to succeed at the risk of our own lives.

But in both situations, our moral-spiritual victory was short-lived. Before long, our proverbial endemic complacency took over. Our ningas-kugon syndrome and our balik-sa-dating-ugali ways won the day. As a people, we must listen to what God is clearly telling us. He wants us to be fruitful and not fruitless as a nation. We can no longer afford to be easy-easy lang as a people.

As Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales expressed during the 18th anniversary of EDSA 1: "EDSA was a call for change and repentance. Unfortunately, like most things we do, we have made EDSA only a fiesta."

We urgently appeal to our political leaders, businessmen and industrialists, educators and key persons in government agencies: Listen to God’s voice within you. Hearken to His call, before it is too late. Keep responding to His mission of moral integrity, stamina and sustainability in your positions of leadership – over the long haul. We will support and follow you all the way. Amen.