The Fig Tree - Fr. Bob
My nephew is a sophomore in high school. He plays football. He admits he’s not the most athletic guy on the team. But he’s okay with that. He just likes being on the team and working hard at it. This season he took quite a beating on the scout team playing against the varsity and was ready to quit.
But then there was a glimmer of hope that changed everything. The one thing that he could do well was long snap a football. One day, a couple of weeks ago the coaches just happened to catch him long snapping the ball before practice. The next day they told him that he’d be the long snapper for the state tournament which his team was in this year.
So, out of all the sophomores on the team only four will see any action in the state tournament and as the new long snapper my nephew is one of them. Talk about sweet redemption for a guy who weeks back was ready to quit.
Another story. It was Feb 15, 2000. A guy is cautiously driving his car down Freeway 35W. That would be the last time that he would be driving a car.
Although he had 20 -20 eyes all his life a rare genetic condition had suddenly come up leaving him legally blind in just a matter of weeks.
As you probably know that guy was me. At that time, I didn’t know if I’d be able to continue my ministry at St. Victoria. But then there was a glimmer of hope that changed everything. The parish rallied around me and said “We’re going to make this work.” And they did. Parish volunteers typed up the three-year cycle of Gospel readings. Others signed up as drivers to get me from point A to point B.
By the way, any of you out there who have ever given me a ride, stand. Let’s hear it for them. That was twenty-five years ago and thanks to you I’m still at it. So, thank you.
So, a young man is ready to quit his high school football team. And a pastor is ready to quit and move on from is parish. And then there was that glimmer of hope that changed everything.
In the Gospel passage for today from Mark 13 Jesus speak to the disciples about the hard times that lay ahead, “The sun will darken” and “people will die of fright”. At this point maybe the disciples are ready to quit and move on.
But then Jesus speaks of something that they don’t quit yet understand. It’s the glimmer of hope that changes everything. Jesus’ metaphor for that hope is the fig tree.
Annually when the fig tree loses its leaves it appears it’s dying. But a closer look tells you differently. Tiny buds are sprouting on its branches. We’re like that fig tree. There are seasons of our life when our lives bear fruit. And then there are seasons of our life when like the fig tree it appears things are dying, and indeed they probably are.
But then, like happened for my nephew and for me and the disciples out of nowhere there’s that glimmer of hope that changes everything. Tiny buds appear on the fig tree that is our life.
That glimmer of hope that changes everything, it happened for Jesus. After death on a cross three day later he was raised to new life. That glimmer of hope, it can be ours. It happens for us when we can trust enough that we’re willing to die to whatever it is we need to die to. That’s when God raises up in us something new that is even better than we could have hoped for.
And when we’re willing to die that way what happens? Tiny buds that you never noticed before are sprouting new life right in before you. That glimmer of hope that changes everything, it’s there, you just need to look for it.
