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Today's Gospel
Repent or Perish
5 min
Gospel
Lk 13:1-9
There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo′am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Repent or Perish
So again, we have these two stories, these two experiences of Jesus. The message is pretty clear, repent or perish. What does it mean to repent or turn back to God? We all need to turn back to God every day, right? Because we talk about microaggressions. We have these microaggressions towards God, right? We're like, "Yeah, God wants that, but we'd be microaggressional, a little bit away from him, a little bit away from him, a little bit away from him." So we have to constantly turn back to God. We have to constantly repent. And of course, the perishing is not just a final scenario. The perishing isn't just like, "Oh, the end of the world. Okay, yeah, you didn't repent. Boom, perish." The perishing is ongoing. And we experienced that. We experienced that in our lives. I think we witness that in the lives of other people. You see people and you're like, "Man, this girl is really perishing." It's real now. It's not some future circumstance. And of course, we see it in ourselves sometimes.
We're like, "I'm miserable," or, "This isn't working out," or, "Why did I do this?" or, "Why did I choose this?" or whatever it is. And we may not connect it, but we're perishing in a sense. Again, it might be a mini-perishing or a micro-perishing, but nonetheless, we are perishing. And so today is another invitation to turn back to God and to develop the habit of turning back to God. To develop the habit of turning back to God on a daily basis, act of contrition, turning back to God through daily routine of prayer, turning back to God through a habit like this, reflecting on the Gospel, turning back to God, regular confession, turning back to God, getting more involved in the community, serving the underprivileged, less privileged. Lots of ways for us to turn back to God. But my own experience tells me that if I am not turning back to God, I am turning away from God. We rarely stay stagnant in one place or static in the spiritual life. So usually, if I'm not turning back to God, I'm turning away from God. That just seems to have been my experience of it, although maybe your experience is different. Let's turn back to God today. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
