Third Sunday of Lent
Luke 13:1-9
February 28, 2016
“It
may bear fruit in the future (Luk 13:9)”
The heart of the parable of the Good
Gardener is God’s Mercy. Not only He is merciful, but He is the Mercy itself. Pope
Francis fittingly wrote that the name of God is Mercy. God cannot but be
merciful. We are like the tree that was fruitless and useless, but God gave us
a second change. Jesus, our Holy Gardener, even exerts His utmost effort to
take care of us, making sure that grace of God in constantly pour upon us.
In my readings on Mercy, I stumbled upon
this little story of a young French soldier who deserted the armies of Napoleon
but was soon caught. He was court-martialed and condemned to death. His mother
pleaded with Napoleon to spare her son’s life. Napoleon said that the crime was
dreadful; justice demanded his life. The mother sobbed and begged for mercy.
Napoleon replied that the young man did not deserve mercy. And the mother said,
“I know that he does not deserve mercy. It would not be mercy if he deserved
it.”
God’s mercy flows from His overflowing
love. However, because God so loves us, He also allows us grow in freedom. God
gave us a second change, but it is up us to grab it or blow it up. Just like
St. Augustine once said, “God created us without us, but He did not save us
without us.” Thus, the greatest enemy of
mercy is hopelessness. We assume that we no longer are no longer able to
change. We refuse God’s second change because we see it as completely useless.
Indeed, to cash despair is the chief work of the devil. Author, lawyer, economist,
and actor Ben Stein says, “The human
spirit is never finished when it is defeated. It is finished when it
surrenders.” Our failures, weaknesses condition us to believe that we are
worthless, and the moment we doubt the mercy of God, the devil is victorious.
England could have been lost to Germany
in World War II, had not been for Winston Churchill. He was the prime minister
of England during some of the darkest hours of World War II. He was once asked by a reporter what his
country’s greatest weapon had been against Hitler’s Nazi regime that bombarded
England day and night. Without pausing for a moment he said, “It was what England’s greatest weapon has
always been hope.”
Pope Francis, through his own initiative
declared this year as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and He opens up the gates of
mercy all over the world so that everyone may feel God’s love and compassion.
Yet again, we never receive that grace, unless we pass through the threshold of
that gates. We need to believe that His Mercy conquers all our limitations, and
His Love covers multitude of sins. When Pope Francis visited the US in
September 2015, he made a point to meet the prisoners and he said to them, “Let us look to Jesus, who washes our feet.
He is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’. He comes to save us from the lie
that says no one can change. He helps us to journey along the paths of life and
fulfillment. May the power of his love and his resurrection always be a path
leading you to new life.”
Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
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