“Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3,5). These harsh-sounding words are spoken by Jesus to a crowd of people with whom he was talking about some Galileans slaughtered by Pontius Pilate and some inhabitants of Jerusalem who were killed by a collapsing tower. We’re used to thinking about Jesus as always preaching good news to the crowds and only giving the Pharisees a hard time. However, here we see Jesus’ “tough love” applied more broadly—universally, in fact, since the crowds tend to be a stand-in for all of us.
What does it mean that we will “likewise perish” if we do not repent? Does it mean that we will be suddenly killed in a freak accident or even murdered, like the Galileans? Of course not. What it does mean is that if we fail to repent, death will catch us unprepared. If we continually put off reforming our lives until “later,” chances are that if we wait long enough, we will die before our hearts and actions have really been converted to the Lord.
The more comforting words we might expect from Jesus follow this brief discourse. We hear about a merciful gardener, who does not give up hope in a fruitless fig tree. The owner of the orchard in which it is found is ready to cut the tree down, but the gardener pleads to leave it for just one more year. The tree represents a Christian who has failed to repent and thus has produced no spiritual fruit.
Taken together, this conversation of Jesus with the crowd and this parable have a clear meaning. God is patient and will often delay our death in order to give us more opportunities to repent. However, He will not do so indefinitely. There will come a time when we will depart from this world, ready or not. Will we put off our repentance until some undefined future time? Or will we listen to the words of Jesus and choose to change now, so that when death comes, we can confidently commend ourselves into the Lord’s eternal embrace? Our earthly lives will come to an end—perhaps suddenly and unexpectedly. Will we be ready?
Andrew Sheedy – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
Fot. Bryan Minear