Monday of Holy Week

one

Monday morning of Holy Week Jesus was returning from Bethany where he spent the night at the Home of his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus to Jerusalem, and as he passes by Bethphage, Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it but leaves. And he said to it, 'May you never bear fruit again'; and at that instant the fig tree withered and died.

Jesus condemns the fig tree because it was not bearing fruit. Oh, the tree was busy - busy making leaves, but it wasn’t bearing fruit.

The fig tree was a prophetic sign. Jesus expects us to bear fruit in three ways:

·       A deeper life of prayer – which is just friendship with Jesus

·       Growth in virtue

·       Spiritual friendship whereby we help them to friendship with Jesus.

two

Then Jesus goes back into the Temple and begins teaching. Immediately the chief priests accost him saying: 'What authority have you for acting like this? Jesus replied: I will answer your question if you answer mine. John’s baptism, was it from God or from men?

“And they argued it out this way among themselves, 'If we say from heaven, he will retort, "Then why did you refuse to believe him?"; but if we say from man, we have the people to fear, for they all hold that John was a prophet'. So their reply to Jesus was, 'We do not know'.

They refused to answer Jesus because John the Baptist told them to repent and bear the fruit that befits repentance. But they did not listen to John even though they knew John was a prophet from God.

Remember the Samaritan woman at the well, St. Photina, who had 5 husbands and the man she was living with was not her husband. She encountered Jesus and realized He was what she longed for her whole life. Immediately she repents, converts, changes her life - then she goes to the village and tells them about Jesus and everyone begins to believe because of her.

We are called to two things:

1.  Continuous Conversion – admit and turn away from our sin toward God in prayer and virtue;

2.  Then through friendship lead others to Jesus.

So why are we so timid?

Is it because we refuse to change our own lives first? Hmm…

three

Then Jesus told them a Parable

There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.

The Householder is God; the vineyard is the land of Israel, the tenants are the Jewish people.

When the season of fruit drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect the fruit.

There is that dang fruit again. God is always insisting on collecting His fruit.

But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third… Finally he sent his son to them. "They will respect my son" he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance." So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

This is what they will do to Jesus, the Son of the Father on Friday, they will take him out of the city and kill him. Then Jesus asks them:  

Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?' They answered, 'He should kill them and give their nation to someone else who will produce the fruit...’

four

Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the foundation stone. Jesus is the stone that is rejected that becomes the cornerstone of a new kingdom. Jesus is referring to a prophecy from Daniel chapter 2 in which Daniel sees a vision of four kingdoms, the Babylonians, the Persians, Greeks and Romans. At the time of the Romans a small stone cut by no human hand comes and strikes the fourth kingdom, shattering it. And that small stone becomes a great mountain filling the whole earth. That stone is Jesus who founds the Catholic Church at the time of the Romans – and the Catholic Church becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.

I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.' At this moment Jesus transfers the Kingdom of God from Israel to the Catholic Church.

Now here is the question: Have we produced the fruits?

What would Jesus say to us today?   

five

The Pharisees refused to listen to John the Baptist; the tax collectors and prostitutes did listen. On this day, Monday of Holy Week, Jesus gives me and probably you great encouragement when He asks: “'What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, "My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today". He answered, "I will not go", but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, "Certainly, sir", but did not go. Which of the two did the father's will?' 'The first' they said. Jesus said to them, 'I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God…”

I don’t know about you, but for a long time, like the first son in the parable, I told the Lord, “I will not go, I will not do your will” but now I think better of it and try to do better. The tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom for precisely one reason – they are willing to change their lives. Yes, we are weak, but we are willing.

While there is still time before Holy Thursday I am going to go to Confession, tell Jesus all my sins and weaknesses, all the ways I have told him “no I won’t go” and that I am sorry and I want Him to change me.  And in His mercy He will begin to change me!