This Sunday’s Gospel reminds us that we are all sinful. Jesus affirms that there is no correlation between sinfulness and sudden death due to an unforeseen accident. Jesus calls all of us loud and clear to repent or to change our hearts. He calls us to turn our hearts to God because God is forgiving and wants to share abundant love with us. We have generally considered sin as a failing in our relationship with God, others or ourselves due largely to our self-centredness. Consequently, these self-centred actions or thoughts cause a fracture in these relationships, requiring some form of reconciliation. However, today’s Gospel stretches this general understanding of sinfulness to our relationship with the whole of creation.
Towards the end of the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a barren fig tree. This parable clearly further alerts the hearers that time is running out for them to repent. Is this parable simply meant to re-emphasise this point, which has already been made abundantly clear? Repent! I suggest that the image of the fig tree suggests something more.
It seems to suggest that we have an added responsibility to nurture good relationships not only with God, other humans and ourselves but also with the rest of creation. Consequently, in this time of turning our hearts to God and seeking reconciliation, there is also a call to include our relationship with all of creation.
It is timely that we reflect on humans’ relationship with creation. Within a couple of months, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ promulgation of his landmark Encyclical “Laudato Si” on caring for our common home. Pope Francis emphasises the centrality of creation to our faith. Quoting Pope St. John Paul ll, Pope Francis writes, “…….Christians in their turn realise that their responsibility within creation and their duty to nature are an essential part of their faith.” (Laudato Si 64). In our liturgy, we often use created things to nurture our faith. We do this by using various elements to create an awareness of God’s actions in our lives.
Many of us received the Ashes to mark the beginning of Lent. As we received them on our foreheads, the priest may have said either ‘Repent and believe the Gospel” or ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” The second of these two forms is less used these days. However, it brings home a truly relevant reality for our lives. ‘Dust’ can be interpreted to mean that we are ‘nothing’ or ‘really worthless’. However, while still a humbling thought, we can understand it differently.
Knowing as we do that all things, including humans, originate from ‘stardust’, this ‘dust’ is something we share with all of creation. In this sense, originating from dust is not meant as a ‘put down’ but as an affirmation of our connection to everything else on this earth, not to mention the whole universe or cosmos.
This view is affirmed in the biblical accounts of creation in which God sees all of creation as good. As we reflect on these biblical creation stories it is important to remember that they are not science or history but a theological and spiritual reflection on our relationship with God and all of creation. Keeping this in mind, the second story of creation (Gn. 2, 4ff), we read that God created humans by breathing his life into clay (dust) with His own breath. This biblical story indicates that we are both in a close relationship with God – breath of God- and the elements of the earth. Thus, the Ashes we received on Ash Wednesday take on a deeper meaning than just our own fragility. We have a deep relationship with God and all of creation.
Now, let us turn our minds to the first creation story (Gn 1 – 2,4). There, we find that humans were created on the sixth day. God’s motivation for the creation of humans was the desire to create something in His own image and likeness. This means that God desires us to have the same mind and heart that He has – to have the same attitude as He has to all creation. According to this creation story, God was ‘pleased’ with everything he created and ‘it was ‘ very good’ (Gn. 1,31). It is true that God did gift humans with dominion over other creatures. But dominion does not mean domination, as it is often misinterpreted to mean. God’s mind in creating is clear. His attitude is one of care, appreciation and love. Being created in His image and likeness, He calls us to have this same attitude towards all of creation. Nowadays, we would say we are guardians of creation rather than having dominion over it.
Guardianship calls us to be responsible in nurturing all things God has given us to share life with, that is, all of creation. God further call us to respond to this mission because we share kinship of the same origins with the whole of creation. Above all, God calls us to be guardians to the vulnerable in the whole of creation, just as He calls us to care for other vulnerable human beings. We are, therefore, guardians in this wonderful universal community gifted to us by God.
In summary, we have seen that Jesus calls us to always repent, especially during this period of Lent. This repentance is very wide-ranging. It touches the whole of our life within the whole community of creation. It calls for a reconciliation of our relationships, whether they be with God, other humans, ourselves or creation. This call to reconciliation also reminds us how closely we, as the whole of creation, are related in the heart of God. Pope Francis points this out when he says that a break-down in any one of these relationships, whether with God, other humans, ourselves or with creation, means a break-down in relationships with all (Laudato Si 89-92).
As we journey in this Jubilee Year and in this period of Lent, let us work on even just one of these relationships. Let us be conscious that any reconciling of a relationship implies a healing of all our relationships.
It might even be said that the man responsible for the fig-tree was making his reconciliation with it, the vineyard owner and all of creation and ultimately with God by vowing to nurture the fig tree in the future. If we care for other humans, ourselves and our common home, then we are surely on the journey as ‘pilgrims of hope’ bringing God’s reconciliation to all. Like the fig tree, we hope to bear fruit even beyond the coming year.
Columban Fr Kelvin Barrett currently lives at St Columban's, Essendon.
Related links
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