3rd Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners, 
Some medical conditions that people are diagnosed with can be greatly improved or even cured by the active role the patient takes in the treatment of and the living with the particular disease/diagnosis. High blood pressure requires weight management, proper diet and exercise. Lung/respiratory problems in smokers will certainly improve if they stop smoking. Those with congestive heart failure and fluid retention must watch their sodium intake if they want to have a close-to-normal life. Weight management, exercise, adherence to a healthy diet, and quitting smoking are things that people must decide to do and actually do themselves – no one else can do these things for them – if they are going to improve their health and possibly reverse the disease. Jesus talks about this in the Gospel this Sunday with the example of the fig tree and the gardener. Jesus is the Master Gardener, and we are the fig trees. Jesus pleads our cause with God His Father, the Orchard Owner, who wants to have the “unfruitful” fig tree cut down. Jesus asks God to give Him some time to “work on us,” as a master gardener would work on a plant or tree to bring it to full health.. In the case of us “non-plants,” we can readily respond to the help and cultivation of Jesus, who will go to great lengths – has gone to a great length already on the cross – to bring us to our full potential as His brothers and sisters and as sons and daughters of God. But unlike the fig tree in the Gospel, we can be active and take an active and responsive part in the care that Jesus the Master Gardener is constantly giving to us. If God the Orchard Owner eventually calls for one “to be cut down,” even after Jesus’ intervention, then whose fault will that be? Similarly, if we ignore the directions of doctors who treat us and then our health declines and we prematurely die, then whose fault is that? The health of our souls requires our attention throughout our lives. Since we don’t know when God will call us from this earth, let us respond regularly to Jesus’s treatment. That treatment begins with regular Confession, Mass attendance. and Communion, and our parish church is the clinic where we find them. Please keep your “clinic” appointments!