Gospel – March 23, 2025
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, 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.’”
(Luke 13:1-9)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus addresses the suffering of others as a way to call us to personal conversion. The tragedies He references—the Galileans killed by Pilate and the victims of the tower collapse—aren’t punishments for sin. Jesus rejects the idea that suffering is always a sign of guilt. Instead, He calls all of us to repentance, not because suffering proves guilt, but because conversion is always urgent.
He follows with a parable about a barren fig tree. Despite its lack of fruit, the gardener pleads for more time to cultivate and nourish it. This is a picture of God’s mercy—He does not give up on us. Our trials, like the gardener’s digging and fertilizing, may feel harsh, but they’re meant to help us grow.
Why do we suffer? Because we love. And to love someone is to will their good, as St. Thomas Aquinas said. But to will someone’s good in a broken world comes at a cost. When we love someone who is sick, we suffer with them. When we see injustice, our hearts ache because love cannot remain indifferent. Without the possibility of evil, there can be no true choice for good. Without suffering, we might never learn how to love deeply and sacrificially.
Jesus gave us the ultimate proof of this. On the Cross, He suffered not because He was guilty, but because we were. He entered into the depth of human pain to redeem it from within—to show us that suffering is not meaningless when it is united to love.
We have many opportunities to love, and that love often costs us. But this is how we become like Christ. This is how we bear fruit.
Let us not become jaded or bitter in the face of evil. Let us not turn away from the suffering around us. Instead, let us love—as Jesus did. Let us repent, trust in His mercy, and remember that God gave us His only son to suffer and die for us because He loves us.
Love costs something. But through that cost, we become who we were made to be: the children of a God who transforms suffering into grace.
