"Your Tripod" reflects the personal Fourth Day journeys of its authors and editors. We are happy to have companions like you share in this project. Our prayer is that these reflections will invite and inspire your Fourth Day journey of Piety, Study and Action as much as writing or editing them inspires our journey and brings us all close moments with Jesus and our neighbors.
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit.The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.Romans 8:5-6
"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 13:6-9
Piety
Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.For you shall be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted; and you shall blush for the gardens which you have chosen.For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.Isaiah 1:27-31
Study
When something gets repeated, the speaker is doing it for emphasis.Thanks to technology and having The Bible on a CD, a simple search reveals that Scriptures deal with the need for “repentance” and “change” no fewer than 72 times.(It was pretty spooky when that result came up considering the scriptural significance of the number 72!).From Exodus to Isaiah to Luke to Hebrews to Revelation, we hear time after time to turn away from what makes us happy and turn toward what makes God and others happy.
Luke frequently relays Jesus call for repentance in both the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles.Paul also does so in his letters to the Hebrews, Romans and other groups in the early Church.Today is another one of those examples where these messages echo down through the years.
Yesterday, we heard Jesus talk about the tension he felt between his divine nature and his human nature regarding his pending torture and execution.He readily admitted that although he wishes us peace, his message will cause division in families over who turns to the truth and who does not.
Today, Luke shares with us the parable he heard from Jesus about the untiring patience of our God who waits for us to change and bear fruit, nourishing us all along the way. Instead of tension, God grants us his untiring patience. When we refuse to change, we are like the barren fig tree that the land owner wanted to cut down.However, the Lord, our caring gardener, intervenes and calls for patience – promising to help us grow so that maybe next year we will bear fruit.I imagine that if we do not, the next year, when the gardener makes his rounds and notices the barren tree, the gardener will once again beg for a change to continue to cultivate the ground around us until we yield our first fruits for the Lord. As long as the Lord is tending to our garden, the landowner may be able to prune us, but he will never prevail in cutting us down.
As Paul teaches, “The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.”That is why our symbolic fig tree seems dead because we are not focused on the concerns of the spirit.
It is up to us if we are to be cultivated so that our Christ-spirit dwells in us and is alive.“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)
Action
Are we a people who long to see the face of the Lord as the Psalmist writes today? Or do we long to see the screen of our Blackberry, the keys to our car, the menu of our IPod and the buttons on the remote control of our entertainment center? The choice is ours. God will wait but we have to be careful not to run out of time. Make one change in your choices this weekend.
From various internet sources, here are some notes on the Biblical Significance of the Number 72:
The 72 disciples sent by Jesus. (Lk 10,1)
The 70 ancients accompanying Moses that received an outpouring of the spirit, plus the 2 absent ones which had remained in the camp, Eldad and Medad. (Nb 11,25-26)
The 72 races resulting from Noah. They are enumerated in chapter 10 of the Genesis. There are fifteen descendants by Japhet, thirty by Cham, twenty-seven by Sem. The list is arbitrary since the descendants of Peleg are not taken into account, and that the fathers are counted at the same time that their sons.
