Our Lord warns us

We come to this time every year and we listen and experience many things, but we are not sure of what the relevance is, we do not understand why we come to church, why we praise, why we chant in the way we do, which is so distinctive to this time of year. However through the grace of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Church, the readings of each hour of the Pascha’s are put in place in order to guide us and lead us through this journey which leads to the crucifixion and then the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The gospel in the first hour of today is about the fig tree which bears no fruit. The Lord cursed the tree for it had leaves but bore no fruit. Likewise it is easy to live our lives and give the appearance of good Christians, but it is much more difficult to actually be good Christians and bear fruit. We can only bear fruit if God is present in out lives. We can clean the outside of our cups, but then we are like the Pharisees and the hypocrites which our Lord spoke of, who occupied themselves with cleaning the exterior but did not take care of the interior. Our Lord knows all that dwells in our hearts, He wants us to beware at this time not to pay attention to exterior appearances only, but to make sure that we build up our spiritual lives as well, so that we may live in the presence of God.

Through this reading, God is saying, wake up and realise that at this time we are living in the steps of Jesus Christ just before the crucifixion, just before He paid the price of our salvation with His own blood. We want to stand deservedly, chanting from the depth of our hearts and being living gospels in all we do. The church wants us to be fruitful Christians in our deeds and words and in preparation for the death of our Lord.

The world around us is technologically advanced and by their own methods, when a crime is committed, they issue a plea for witnesses to come and explain what they saw and if they cannot find any, they react the events in order to remind people of the incidents and try to trigger the memory of anyone who may have seen the crime. Our Church has used the same principle for many years during Holy Week; It came to the realisation of the efficacy if such a system a long time ago and during Holy week we live the re-enactment of the murder of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church has set the readings as symbols to the steps which lead to the crucifixion

It is not enough to come to church and chant the songs, we must live the sufferings of our Lord so that we may be able through His mercy, to inherit the kingdom prepared for us ever since the beginning. Prayer is an important and essential element in our lives generally, but especially at this time, for it is only through prayer that we can reach our goal, the goal is to attain our salvation and it is prayer which leads us there.

Many people when they read the story of the fig tree which our Lord cursed, feel that this was harsh reaction from our Lord, especially since it was not time for figs to grow, but our Lord is not a harsh God. He is the same Lord who washed the feet of his disciples, who walked from city to city for the sake of the sick, who suffered and died for us, so that we may live. How can his loving nature be reconciled with His cursing of the fig tree?

In order to understand our Lord’s actions, we must recognise that He did this as a warning out of love, like a loving father who warns his children. He does not want to frighten us, but wants to direct us – those who will live without bearing fruit will not live to see the kingdom of God which has been prepared for them ever since the beginning. Yes God loves us all, yes God is a merciful God but He is also a just God who has clearly set out the conditions which we must fulfil to enter His kingdom. He has paid the price, all we have to do is to love Him with all our hearts, minds and spirits and live accordingly. If we love our Lord in this way, we will undoubtedly live according to His will in our lives, for He will dwell within us and according to the guidance He affords us in the Holy Bible, which tells me that I must make use of the talents entrusted to me by my Lord, not only to grow leaves, but more importantly to bear fruit. We have been given a gift which has been bought by the blood of our Lord, if we do not use this gift we are like a child who is given an expensive present by his father, a present which the father toiled, worked and suffered to obtain, but the son puts it aside and makes no use of it. This present assures that the son will live a happy and fruitful life, but if the son makes no use of it, it will be worthless for him, the price the father paid for it would have gone to waste. Let us not be like this son, let us grab the gift entrusted to us by our Lord, the gift of salvation and let us accordingly love a happy and fruitful life through His guidance. We ask our Lord to grant us the peace and knowledge, so that we may be enlightened enough to recognise and value this gift He has given us through His love for us.

Let us journey through holy week with our Lord, let us cleanse the interior and exterior of our cups.

I pray that this may be a blessed time for everyone; that it may be a time for spiritual growth for all of us as individuals, in our family life and for the Church, the undivided body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ