Today is Fig Monday arising from St. Mark’s observation that, on the day after Palm Sunday, Christ cursed a fruitless fig tree. It’s an odd story and yet it fits in with the shape of the liturgical year.
You might know the story. Our Lord is hungry, so when he spies a fig tree in the distance he approaches it looking for figs to eat. Even though it isn’t the right season for figs, our Lord curses it and then proceeds on his way to empty the temple of money-changers.
On the way back, he and his disciples pass the same fig tree, which is now withered. Christ stops under the skeletal branches and begins to teach his disciples about prayer.
Figs throughout the Bible represent the abundance of the Kingdom of God. Somehow, this story is all wrapped up with the fruitfulness of prayer.
As we put ourselves into this story, I’m confronted by Christ himself, under the withered tree, asking me just what I intend to do about my fruitless prayer life.
I’m a barren fig tree. Instead of making fruit, I make excuses. I complain that I don’t feel close to God but neglect to make space for him with consistent prayer. Instead, I insist I’ll do better tomorrow, or that when life slows down and gets easier, I’ll pray more. When this hard season of life is over, I’ll have more free time and then I’ll be be more attentive and disciplined. I’ll grow figs when the weather gets better, I promise. It just isn’t the right season yet.
There are always convincing reasons for why our spiritual lives become fruitless. We’re expert excuse-makers. We can do it with anything — right now isn’t the time but someday I’ll chase my dream, start exercising, be serious about my relationships, read more, eat healthier, sleep better or work less … it’s like saying maybe tomorrow I’ll start to really live.
Our Lord has no patience for that. It’s now or never, he says. Delay is to willingly accept a curse to forever be fruitless. To make his point absolutely, crystal clear, he marches straight off to the temple to purify it by whatever means are necessary and make space again for God’s presence.
So, if we are feeling the frustration of a fruitless prayer life, and when we struggle to be consistent and dedicated in our spiritual devotion, St. Mark has a proposal – invite Christ in to do a housecleaning. On our own, we are like Adams and Eves fleeing the wreckage of our bad choices and delayed promises. We clutch our fig branches on the way out of paradise. Our continued excuses are harmful and condemn us to spiritual barrenness. We feel the weight of those excuses and they bring us to a halt before we even begin to try. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
The only solution is to place Christ back at the center. Allow him to pray in us. We’ve been trying to do it on our own for so long, and it isn’t working. Allow Christ in to remove all the what-ifs and dreams untried so that he can become a new, strong tree of life growing within.
Fig Monday is the revelation that, with prayer, impossible changes can take place within us. The promise of new life starts right now.
Smitten With Goodness 