(Third Sunday of Lent (C): This homily was given on March 24,
2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 103:1-11; 1 Cor
6:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Third Sunday of Lent 2019]
“Thank God for the fourth year.”
That should be our response after listening to today’s
gospel reading from Luke 13.
Jesus tells us a parable here about a man who planted
a fig tree in his orchard that didn’t produce any figs for three years.
Now if I had the opportunity to talk to this particular
orchard owner today, I would say to him, “You, sir, are patient man—a very
patient man. Far more patient than I
am. After my father died I took care of
the landscaping on our property in Barrington, and I know that if I had ever planted
something that was supposed to bear fruit every year but didn’t, it would have
been gone—after one year! No doubt about
it.”
But the orchard owner in the parable went one step
further. He not only gave the tree three
years; he actually listened to the words of his gardener and agreed to give the
tree another year—a fourth year—to
bear fruit.
And not only that …
He even agreed to let the gardener cultivate the ground and
fertilize the tree to give it the best chance it could possibly have to finally
become fruitful.
To me this parable makes clear the importance of praying
and doing penance for the conversion of those in the state of mortal sin, who
are squandering God’s gifts and are in danger of losing their souls. The owner of the orchard here represents the
Lord, the barren fig tree represents the sinner—that’s clear enough. As for the gardener, to me he represents all those who are currently praying
and offering spiritual sacrifices for the sinner. Notice that the orchard owner gave the fourth
year (the bonus year) to the fig tree specifically
because of the pleas of the gardener.
It was his intercession that
was key in the process. And because of
what he did, the tree received special graces that it would not otherwise have
received. (Specifically, the ground
around it got cultivated and fertilized.)
So never stop being the “gardener” for those who are
estranged from God and the Church—especially members of your families.
As long as they’re in their “fourth year” (in other words,
as long as they’re alive and breathing) there’s hope for their repentance and
conversion.
Of course, their “fourth year” won’t go on forever. It didn’t go on indefinitely for the barren
fig tree, and it doesn’t go on forever for any one of us—which is why Jesus
preceded this parable by mentioning the sudden and tragic deaths of two groups
of people: first of all, a group of Galileans murdered by Pontius Pilate (who,
by the way, was not the nice guy he’s sometimes portrayed as being in Hollywood
movies), and secondly a group of 18 people who died when a tower fell on them at
Siloam.
Notice that Jesus said the same thing after mentioning each
of these events: “But I tell you, if you will not repent, you will all perish
as they did.”
He meant that, of course, in the spiritual sense—alluding
to hell.
The moral here is really simple and straightforward: Don’t
delay repentance! If there’s a serious
sin in your life that you need to deal with, go to confession and deal with
it. Confess it, be absolved of it, and
be freed from the guilt of it! You’ll
make the priest’s day. We priests like
to catch “big fish”—as St. John Vianney (the Cure of Ars) used to call them.
Let me end my homily today by mentioning a movie which is
being released this week and which I strongly urge you to see. It’s called Unplanned, and it’s based on the
best-selling book of the same title (which some of you have probably read). For those who might not have read it, Unplanned is the autobiographical story of a woman named Abby Johnson, who was once the
director of the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Bryan, Texas. Abby wanted to help women in crisis
situations, and so she volunteered for the organization in 2001, while she was
still in college at Texas A&M University.
She started off as a volunteer escort (an escort at an abortion clinic
is the person who’s responsible for taking a woman from her car and into the
building—while at the same time keeping her from listening to the pro-life
volunteers outside the gate who are appealing to the woman not to kill her baby).
Abby, who ended up having two abortions herself, believed
the lie that Planned Parenthood really wants to reduce the number of abortions
by preventing unwanted pregnancies, so when she graduated from college she
became more deeply involved in the organization—thinking that this was a way to
show compassion and love for women and to reduce the abortion rate at the same
time. Her intentions, at least to some
extent, were good.
She rose through the ranks rather quickly and eventually
became the local clinic’s director. Of
course, there were some things that bothered her—like the pressure she was
receiving from her superiors to do more abortions and more late term abortions so that the clinic would bring in more
money. But what finally opened her eyes
to the truth of what she was involved in occurred in late September of 2009, on
the day she was asked to hold the ultrasound probe on the abdomen of a woman
during an abortion. She had never done
that before, but they were short staffed that particular day and the doctor needed
her assistance. And so, for the first
time (through the miracle of ultrasound) she was able to see what really
happens to a baby in the womb during an abortion procedure. Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty. Actually, it was horrific—so much so that
when it was over Abby dropped the probe because she was so upset.
She then left the clinic in tears.
And where did she go?
Where did she go in her anguish and in her distress?
Well, believe it or not, she went immediately to the nearby
office of the Coalition for Life—and to the people of that organization who had
been opposing her for years; to the people who had been protesting and praying
in front of her clinic!
You might say, “Why did she go to them? Why did she seek help
from these men and women who had been her enemies for so long?”
It’s because they had been respectful and nice to her, in
spite of the fact that they detested what she was doing! And it’s because they had prayed for
her! To put it in the terms of this homily,
it’s because they had been faithful and persistent “gardeners” for the “barren
fig tree” of Abby Johnson’s life from the time she had been an escort at the
clinic. And so when the full reality of
what abortion is hit her square in the face, Abby trusted that the people at
the Coalition for life would take care of her and give her the support and
guidance and love that she needed.
And she was right.
They did. They helped her find
forgiveness, and healing—and the truth (which ultimately led her to become
Catholic in 2012, along with her husband).
Now, ten years later, Abby Johnson is one of the strongest
and most persuasive voices in the pro-life movement. She’s as powerful as she is because she knows
the dirty business of abortion from the inside-out. She’s been a victim of its many lies—and now
she’s determined to expose those lies to the world.
This new movie is part of that effort. See it!—and challenge your pro-choice friends
to see it as well.
Through the prayers and good works of the men and women at
the Coalition for Life, God gave Abby Johnson a “fourth year” to bear fruit,
and—thanks be to God—she’s made the most of it.
May all of us do the same thing, if ever we need to.