During this Year of Faith, CCSJ plans to organise a series of workshops to focus on some of the parables in our Gospels. One of these will be the parable of the barren fig tree (see today’s reading: Lk 13:1-9).
In some ways this parable reminds me of my early teaching career in London at a school where many poor black students of Caribbean origin were being suspended or expelled. These children had been placed in the Lord’s vineyard – on good soil. Yet those responsible for their welfare as teachers did not take time “to dig round” them or to “manure” them so that they could bear fruit. Low expectations of their abilities led to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Year after year they continued to fail. Like the barren fig tree, many of them failed to bear fruit – which they were capable of bearing.
I am no heroine. I just love children and believe that each child is a gift from God; that each of us has a responsibility for nurturing each child’s God-given talents so that he/she will bear fruit. My immediate strategy was to do as the man who looked after the vineyard did, and intercede for those who were at risk of being suspended or expelled. My class became the only virtually-grouped class in the school.
Now, I am not saying that it was an easy task to turn around the lives of angry youths who were fed-up and who had lost trust in a system that was supposed to nurture their talents so that they could bear fruit. Some of the stories of my failed attempts make good after-dinner jokes – like the time I accepted an invitation to take my class to watch the Changing of the Guards at BuckinghamPalace. While crowds peered through the gates at the Palace, my students and I sat in the forecourt watching the proceedings. We had spent a long time discussing how one should behave at such an event.
Sitting behind us were some white boy scouts. Now, I don’t know if they had ever interacted with people from black and minority ethnic communities before, but a few of them started to hurl racist abuse at some of my students. In no time my students were picking up the fine gravel on the ground and hurling gravel at the boy scouts. Over the years, they had learned that the way to resolve conflict was to react with violence. One student had told me: “Miss, that is the only way to survive where we live.”
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It takes a long time and much effort to get young people like my students to bear the kind of fruits that God intended. The principal banned me from taking my class on any other school outings that year. I received an invitation to take my students to a farm. I pleaded and pleaded with her until she gave in and on this trip they behaved like angels.
It takes a while to rebuild trust among those who live in dysfunctional families and whose self-esteem has been damaged by the way in which they are treated, e.g. at school and in society. Too often we lose patience and want to cut down the trees that are not bearing fruit. My message to readers is that we must all continue to intercede with God for those in our homes, in our workplaces, in our communities, in our country and in our world who are not bearing fruit.
As we read the signs of the times, prayer and action will help us to transform the world to reflect Gospel values. We know that God is patient. He will give us time to “dig round” and “manure” those who are not bearing fruit.
Luke 13:1-5 is a call to repentance. Jesus tells us that unless we repent, we will all perish like those in this Gospel reading. While we know that God is merciful and will wait like the father in the parable of the prodigal son for our return to His loving embrace when we stray from the right path, our duty as Christians is also to encourage others to repent and to lead holy lives, as God intended.
Our vocation to be holy will take us a lifetime to achieve. Even St Paul saw himself as “the chief of sinners”. Let us resolve this year to avoid evil and to do good. Let us pray: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
