Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 13: 1-9
God’s patience must drive us to conversion

In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls for repentance through the parable of the barren fig tree. Many people still believe that certain tragedies are God’s punishments for our sins. However, Jesus rejects this notion and calls all to repentance. Giving more time for the barren fig tree to bear fruit illustrates God’s patience and the urgency of transformation.

Pope Francis often echoes this call to conversion in his teachings. In Evangelii Gaudium, he speaks of the need for personal and communal renewal, emphasising that the Church and the world cannot remain stagnant. We are all called to bear fruit and live in a way that reflects God’s love, mercy, and justice. The Pope warns against the “globalisation of indifference,” where we become complacent or disconnected from the sufferings around us.

Today, as Pope Francis points out in Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, we are faced with numerous “signs of the times,” such as environmental degradation, social inequality, and increasing division. These are reminders that repentance is not just an individual act but also a communal and global one. The world is like the fig tree—God gives us time and grace to change our ways, but this time is not infinite.

In our daily lives, we in the Church, are called to examine where we are like the barren fig tree, where we might need to turn away from complacency and sin. Pope Francis urges us to be active agents of change and cultivate lives that bear the fruits of love, solidarity, and care for creation. Through our individual and collective acts of repentance, we open ourselves to God’s mercy and the opportunity for new life.

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Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2024