Unless You Repent
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
Luke 13:1–9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!’ And he told them this parable: ‘There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘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?’ He said to him in reply, ‘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.”
Grace Prayed For
The grace of genuine repentance—not fear of punishment, but sorrow for having loved too little.
Reflection
There is an ancient human tendency, when confronted with other people’s suffering, to search for the sin that caused it. It makes the world feel safer, more orderly. If their disaster was the result of their choices, then our own choices can protect us from the same fate. Jesus refuses this comfort. Twice—with a sharpness that is itself an act of love—He says: “By no means.”
But He does not stop there. He does not simply dismantle the theology of deserved punishment and leave us in a void. He redirects it. The question is not whether those who suffered were greater sinners than you. The question is: are you repenting? The tragedies of others become, in Jesus’ hands, not occasions for judgment but occasions for examination. “What about you?”
This is the heart of conversion in Week Three. We are called to stop looking outward—at other people’s failures, other people’s sins—and to turn inward with honesty and trust. Not the paralyzing self-examination of scrupulosity, but the honest reckoning of a person who knows they are loved and therefore has nothing to fear from the truth about themselves.
The parable of the fig tree is among the most tender images in the Gospels. The owner comes seeking fruit and finds none. He is ready to cut it down. But the gardener intercedes: “Leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.” This is not the language of a last chance given reluctantly. This is the language of someone who still believes in the tree, who wants to give it every possible opportunity to become what it was created to be.
Who is that gardener? We do not have to look far. Jesus is the one who intercedes for us before the Father, who tends the soil of our hearts with patience and with mercy, who has not given up on us even when we have given up on ourselves. Conversion in the Christian life is never self-generated. It is a response to being tended.
Lent is the season of the gardener’s extra year. Extra care. Extra cultivation. Will we open ourselves to it? Repentance is not groveling in the dirt. It is allowing the Gardener access to the soil.
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post