THE BUDDING OF THE FIG TREE


FRIDAY, THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Dan 7:2-14; Dan 3:75-81; Lk 21:29-33

My Words will Never Pass Away

The word of God will never pass away, for the word of God is God, as the Prologue of John’s Gospel states. Since the will of God is the foundation of the existence of all things, his word is the programme or the spirit that animates every existing or actual thing. While every creature has its span of existence allotted to it by God and sustained by his word that brings things into existence, each disappears as soon as it has run its course and the time allotted to it has expired. We are rarely aware that we are running on the programme defined by the word of God. How different our lives would be if we were fully aware of this important fact. But the scripture has the record of this fact, for we read in Psalm 139:14-16 “Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” As we explained through the reflections, the knowledge of God does not determine us, for he made us free to choose our course of action. So, what the word of God has about us is not determinative, but within that knowledge of us contained in the word of God, we have optional paths which lead to glory or to shame and damnation. The word of God, by revealing the will of God, also reveals our possible goods and our possible evils at the same time. The latter results from our non-cooperation with the word of God.

Subsequently, the revelation of God's will for humans and other material creatures is always accompanied by the admixture of darkness or evil, which reveals the possible outcome of our free will in our temporal existence. Prophet Daniel’s visions of the night illustrate these facts. They are a vision of his night because they are the outcome of God’s unchanging will and man’s corruptible will. The uncertainty in our choices is the source of the darkness or night in the vision. The various terrible beasts Daniel saw are all outcomes of man’s evil choices. Evil manifests in God’s creation only through the wrong choices of his rational creatures. These choices away from the will of God are the sources of darkness, sin, and death. “I, Daniel, have been seeing visions in the night. I saw the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea; four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the other.” The great sea is a representation of the mystery of God’s holy will. The choices of men from the four corners of the earth cause these evil beasts to emerge. But it is from the four winds of heaven because they are permitted by the will of God in response to men’s daily choices. Just as the evil choices of men in relation to God’s immutable will give rise to the four terrible beasts, our good choices in union with the holy will of God constitute the Son of Man, who comes in glory. “I gazed into the visions of the night. And I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man.”

Evil will never manifest in isolation from the good, for it is in the time of its manifestation that the good is purified and made to shine out. But there will be an ultimate manifestation of the good without any admixture of evil, which is a corruption, in the kingdom of heaven. The analogy our Lord gave as a sign for us in the Gospel rests on this principle. “Think of the fig tree and indeed every tree. As soon as you see them bud, you know that summer is now near. So with you when you see these things happening: know that the kingdom of God is near.” When the fallible are removed by our firm and consistent choice of the good, God will sweep away the chaff, which is empty and hollow, into the unquenchable fire of hell. The inconsistent wills are removed only in great tribulations that arise when many people choose evil over good. Their choices evoke a great manifestation of evil that causes the purification of the just and the manifestation of God’s salvation and glory of the just, represented in the vision by the One like the Son of Man. By our faith in the word of God and endurance of evil, we are transfigured into the Son of Man. We pray for the grace of steadfastness in doing God’s will.

Let us pray: Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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