Monday of Holy Week

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Monday of Holy Week

The fig tree is the prophetic sign that helps us understand what Jesus is doing on Monday of Holy Week.

On Monday morning, Jesus returned from Bethany, and as he passed 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.”

But we know that Jesus spent Palm Sunday evening in Bethany at the Home of his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. And what do you suppose Martha did for Jesus? Why, she made a big feast of course! Because Martha is the patron saint of hospitality!

So when Jesus curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit, it’s not because he’s hungry.

The problem is that it’s not doing what it was supposed to, bearing fruit. And that’s also the problem with the Jewish people. They were not bearing fruit.

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Tax Collectors and Prostitutes

Then Jesus went back into the Temple and began to teach.  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.”

Then Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the Kingdom and you are not because they heard John and they chose to repent and bear the fruit of repentance and you will not.”

What fruit is Jesus looking for?

I.            Repent

a.  Stop doing sinful things

b.  Remove the temptations that lead us to sin

II.          Turn toward Jesus in daily mental prayer

III.        Live a life of love

a.  O.K. that is way to vague

b.  Then live the Golden Rule

                                         i.    Do to others what you want them to do to you

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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...’

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The Stone Rejected by the Builders

The whole issue on Monday of Holy Week is that John came looking for the fruit of repentance and the Jewish people rejected John. Then Jesus comes looking for the same fruit and they reject Him. He is the stone rejected by the builders.

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?  

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The most effective way to bear fruit the fruit Jesus is looking for is to do three things:

I.            Daily Mental Prayer

a.  Read or Listen to the Word of God like you are now in the Rosary or with Scripture

b.  Make the effort to think about it so that you come to understand

c.   Apply it to your life and see what changes need to be made

II.          Then make a simple concrete Resolution to put into practice what you have been meditating or thinking about in prayer

III.        Once a day make a brief Examination

a.   Did you put your resolution into practice?

b.  What have you thought, said or done that was wrong?

c.   What have good have you failed to do?

If you will do these three things every day, then you will bear the fruit that bears repentance.