‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ “..Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.”

The Gospel of the 3rd Lent Sunday is telling me about the mercy of God and our repentance through the parable of the fig tree that didn’t bear fruit after three years taking good care by the gardener. It was a lot of respecting and hope and patience of the person who every year was supposed to taste the fruit of that tree but at the end he was so disappointed that he wanted to cut it off so that he could keep the good soil and replace another tree that would bear fruit. But the gardener with the heart of a mother wanted to give some more time for it then asked the person to extend one more year in which he would be taking care of it to let it bear fruit, if not then it would not be too late to remove it out of the garden.

The parable ended without us knowing what happened after that one more year “ Did it bear fruit?”. It was much excited to know the result. Later, I realized that the result depends on the fig tree itself, if it wants to bear much fruit or wanst to live in a safe state. The fig tree here, I think, it is also a simple image of my life that I choose to live. Although somehow it doesn’t harm another trees, does not give the poison, does not destroy the landscape but it harms the soil, using fertilizer of the soil without bearing fruit. So the words awakened me to live in the question: “How is the fig tree of my life?, How is the situation of it now? And how to make it bear its fruit?”

Living of this Lenten season, the word of God is not only inviting me not to repent but also to go out of my safety to bear much fruit.