107. Tuesday of Holy Week

Meditations no. 153 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

To bear the fruit God is expecting from us we need to live a life of faith.

We are accompanying Jesus in his last week on earth. On the Tuesday before he died, as St Mark recounts, our Lord was returning to Jerusalem with his disciples. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.

Jesus was returning from Bethany and was very tired, our Father comments. It moves me so much to see Christ as a Man. He, Jesus Christ, was hungry! The maker of the universe, the Lord of all things, the Almighty, is hungry!

He is hungry and goes towards that fig tree, still far in the distance, which has plenty of lush foliage. But on approaching it, he finds nothing but leaves.

My child, Jesus is hungry and thirsty. From the Cross he cried out: sitio -I thirst! And he is thirsty for you - for you! - for your love, your soul, for all souls, whom it is your duty to raise up to him by the way of the Cross, which is the way to immortality, to the glory of heaven. He comes close to you because he is thirsty and hungry; and he finds on you no more than leaves, if you have given yourself to him only in a formal and dry way, with a faith that has no vibrancy; if in you there is no humility, or sacrifice, or works; if you are no more than a facade, and you aren’t putting your heart into the details of every moment.

Finding no food, Jesus said to the fig tree: May no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. Our Father goes on to say: My child, don’t these words make you think how your faith has to be, with your life conforming to that faith, so that Christ always has fruit which consoles him: in your work, in your apostolic zeal, crowned with good works?

Discipuli mirati sunt - the disciples marvelled, saying: quomodo continuo aruit? - how did the fig tree wither at once?

Arefacta est continuo ficulnea… The tree withered. It was now a mere stump that could never offer good fruit to travellers. It withered up! And those men who had seen so many miracles done by Christ were once again taken aback; their faith was not yet a burning flame.

Amen dico vobis, I assure you, si habueritis fidem - if you had faith… : if you were to say not only to this fig tree, but even monti huic - to this mountain: tolle, et iacta te in mare - be taken up and cast into the sea, it would be done.

My children, do you see? Our Lord sets this condition: that we have faith, because then we will be able to move mountains. And there are many things to be moved… We must open up in the world this way of ours, which is so old and yet new. And if there are mountains, obstacles, misunderstandings, deceits, which Satan wants and which God permits, we have to have faith, faith with deeds, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility.

God gives faith to anyone who asks for it with humility.

Faith is a supernatural virtue which disposes our intelligence to give assent to the truths of revelation, to say Yes to Christ, who has brought us full knowledge of the Blessed Trinity’s plan for our salvation. If we want to sanctify ourselves in our ordinary life, we have to live by faith, learning to ponder every event and every one of our actions in the light of this supernatural knowledge. We have no other alternative. There are only two possible ways of living on this earth: either we live a supernatural life, or else an animal life. And you and I can only live the life of God, a supernatural life. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul? What use to man are all the things of the earth, all that our intelligence and will can aspire to? What is the point of all that, if it is all to come to an end and sink out of sight; if all the riches of this world are mere theatre props and scenery, and if after all this there is eternity for ever, and ever, and ever?

The phrase “for ever” made St Teresa of Avila great One day, as a child, she set out from Avila with her brother Rodrigo through the Adaja gate. As they left the city walls behind, intending to reach the land of the Moors where they could be beheaded for love of Christ, she kept whispering to her brother, who was beginning to get tired, “For ever, for ever, for ever!”

Men lie when they say “for ever” about things on earth. The only true, totally true, “for ever” is that which we say with reference to God. This is how you ought to live your life, with a faith that will help you to taste the honey, the sweetness of heaven, whenever you think about eternal life which is indeed for ever.

Paratum est cor meum, Domine; paratum est cor meum! we say with the Psalmist: my heart is ready, Lord, to receive this gift of yours. Because faith is a gift from God. We can destroy it, but we can’t obtain it through our own efforts. We have to ask for it humbly. And a sure sign of humility, because it is based on the awareness of our own wretchedness and the goodness of God, is to ask as our Father showed us: A penitent soul prayed: “Lord, I do not deserve to be heard, because I am wicked.” But he added: “Yet… listen to me quoniam bonus - because You are good.”

Asking for faith and trusting in God’s goodness.

This Gospel passage makes us feel sorry, our Father wrote about the scene we are now considering, yet at the same time encourages us to strengthen our faith, to live by faith, so that we may always be ready to yield fruit to our Lord.

Let us not deceive ourselves: our Lord does not depend in any way on the human results of our efforts.

Our most ambitious projects are, for him, but child’s play. What he wants are souls, he wants love. He wants all men to come to him, to enjoy his Kingdom for ever. We have to work a lot on this earth and we must do our work well, since it is our daily tasks that we have to sanctify. But let us never forget to do everything for his sake. If we were to do it for ourselves, out of pride, we would produce nothing but leaves, and no matter how luxuriant they were, neither God nor our fellow men would find any good in them.

We should never hesitate to ask God for help, and we should be firmly convinced that we will receive whatever we need. For faith makes us all-powerful: If you will only believe, every gift you ask for in your prayer will be granted.

The man of faith sees the things of this life in their proper perspective. He knows that our stay on earth is, to use a phrase of St Teresa, “a bad night in a bad inn”. He becomes convinced once again that our time on earth is a time to work and to struggle, a time to purify ourselves in order to wipe out the debt we owe to God’s justice for our sins. He knows too that worldly possessions are but a means, and he uses them generously, heroically.

Faith is not only a virtue to be preached. Above all it is to be practised. Often, perhaps, we just don’t have the strength. If this happens (once more we go to the Gospels) let us do as the father of the lunatic boy did. He very much wanted his son to be saved; he hoped Christ would cure him, but he could not bring himself to believe that such happiness was possible. Jesus, who always asks us to have faith and who knows at the same time what is troubling the man’s soul, helps him, saying: If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Everything is possible, we are all-powerful! But only if we have faith. The man feels his faith wavering and he is afraid that his lack of trust will prevent his son from being cured. He weeps. Don’t be ashamed of tears like these, for they are the fruit of our love of God, of contrite prayer, of true humility. Whereupon the father of the boy cried aloud, with tears, “Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief.”

We too now, after this time of meditation, can speak the same words to him: “Lord, I do believe! I have been brought up to believe in you. I have decided to follow you closely. Repeatedly during my life I have implored your mercy. And repeatedly too I have thought it impossible that you could perform such marvels in the hearts of your children. Lord, I do believe, but help me to believe more and better!”

Let us address this same plea to our Lady, Mother of God and our Mother, and Teacher of faith: Blessed are you for your believing; the message that was brought to you from the Lord shall have fulfilment.