Dear Friends,
Our Lenten journey is half over. How are you doing? Have you kept your commitment or your fast or your extra prayer or your good deeds? If not, now is the time to ask God to help you work toward whatever Lenten Penance you have chosen to do. Like the fig tree in today’s gospel, let Jesus be the gardener who will cultivate the ground around you and fertilize you. Let God help you succeed in being the disciple you want to be.
One special opportunity our parish is offering for your spiritual growth this Lent is the series of spiritual presentations on Thursdays. They have been excellent! Those who have had the chance to sit in on one or all of the talks have spoken highly both of the content and the delivery of the presentations. Last week, Doug and Ann Lenz moved us to tears as they shared insights from their family life and the great call Jesus has for those who have chosen marriage as their life.
This week, Fr. Kevin Schneider, who teaches at Creighton Prep, will be our presenter. He is an entertaining speaker and I am sure you will enjoy his presentation. The talk starts at 7:00 and will end before 8:00. Come this week and be inspired. Or, mark your calendar to join us next week when Susan Naatz presents or the following week with Fr. Greisen. Both of them are powerful speakers. There is also the opportunity for confession each Thursday before the presentation. Confessions start at 5:30.
Pope Francis has called for every parish in the world to provide 24 hours of prayer for the Lord this Friday and Saturday, March 4-5th. In the Archdiocese of Omaha, we have been asked to have the 24 hours begin at noon on Friday and conclude at noon on Saturday. The church will be open for those 24 hours and you are encouraged to come by day or night to pray during the 24 hours.
The story of the tree in today’s gospel reminds me of where I was last year at this time. I was in the Holy Land for a two month sabbatical and spent quite a bit of time in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would go among the olive trees to pray. The garden is just outside the walls of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. Really, it is just a short walk from the eastern gates of Jerusalem to the garden. Many people expect the garden to be a forest because that is how it is often depicted in movies, but olive trees do not grow very high and there tends to be a lot of space between them to allow for a greater harvest of olives. So it truly looks more like a garden than a forest. Between the olive trees the grasses grow and flowers bloom so it is a lovely place to come and rest. In the small garden right outside the church of All Nations, which sits above the stone where Jesus prayed, there are a dozen or so olive trees that have huge gnarled trunks. These trees are nearly two thousand years old. Some of them may have been alive when Jesus prayed in the garden. They are silent witnesses to the presence of Jesus in this place of prayer.
The image of a tree in need of care would have come quickly to the mind of someone who regularly prayed in this garden. Jesus regularly observed those who tended the garden and cared for the trees. He may have thought of himself as a gardener caring for what he had planted, not giving up on it, nurturing it with his time and giving his own life to make sure it thrived.
Let Jesus tend to you today and help you bear much fruit.
Peace,
Father Damian