The Lord God Is
Merciful (See Lk 13:1-9)
Dear
Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
The
parable in this Sunday’s Gospel obviously tells us how patient and merciful the
Lord God is. Faced with the tree full of
leaves but without fruit, people often think of cutting down that useless
product. Naturally we also feel
frustrated when obtaining no success after having invested too much money or
effort in some project. We even want to
punish someone for not meeting our demand, hope, trust and expectations which we
have put in them.
All
of the abovementioned thoughts and deeds can be seen as results of a proper
exercise of the principle of justice, commonly accepted by everybody.
In
society, employers get mad at the workers who fail to produce maximal profits
for the companies and are more than willing to fire them on the ground of
“business is business.”
In
class-rooms, teachers lose their patience when confronting the students who show
no bright accomplishment.
In
families, spouses fall weary and disappointed with one another’s weaknesses,
vices and mistakes, and, finding it hard to forgive, are almost ready for a legal
solution. Parents and children
respectively are unable to listen to one another, to understand one another and
to give one another a chance for renewing their relationship.
People
of our present days are too proud of their achievements in the fields of
economy, sciences and technology that they get hurt when committing any wrongdoing
and cannot accept as a reality their failures.
They try hiding their impatience and shortage of compassion in dealing
with both people and problems. They are
afraid of even saying “sorry” considering that tantamount to humiliating
themselves. Hateful and destructive
reactions to others and sometimes desperate attempt on their own lives are all
that they have recourse to as though there were no better ways to overcome
difficulties.
The
Gospel message for this Sunday of Lent brings us strong hope in the divine
merciful love of God the Father Who is always kind in desiring salvation for
all of us sinners and patient in waiting for us His disobedient children to go
home.
When
He says, “Leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around
it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down”, He is really
buying time for us sinners, giving us more chance to repent and so deserve
salvation. His “this year” in reality
means “endless year” just because His mercy is without end and His love eternal.
This
season of Lent by God’s merciful love coincides with the 2016 Jubilee Year of
Divine Mercy of which the logo reads “Misericordes sicut Pater”, a phrase in
Latin means “Merciful as God the Father”.
We are encouraged, on the one hand, to always nourish an unfailing hope
in God’s mercy, regardless of how grave our sins may be, strongly being sure
that God would wait for our last decision to go back to Him. We are also taught, on the other, to show
understanding, patience, compassion, forgiveness and charity to our neighbor no
matter who they are, friends or foes, and who even violently resist our offer
of reconciliation.
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P.
