This weekend we continue our Lenten homily series on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The title of this series is “Healing our Wounded Hearts.” Through these homilies, we are pondering the many ways Jesus heals our wounded hearts through the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation. Last week, Deacon Doug spoke of how this Sacrament helps draw us out of slavery to sin that wounds and even kills our hearts. He helped us see how Jesus intended to bring about a new exodus by His death, resurrection and ascension. Like the Israelites who were rescued from slavery to the Egyptians, our hearts can be rescued from slavery to sin and death through Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. Praise God! Deacon Doug spoke of how God didn’t just bring the Israelites out of Egypt; in the desert God also worked to bring Egypt out of the Israelites. God had to heal them of the idolatry that their hearts had become all too accustomed to in Egypt. Similarly, Jesus gives us grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to leave behind what we can make into idols: money, power, TV, our phones and many other things. God is so good to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation!
Today as we continue to ponder this Sacrament, I want to turn our attention to gardens. If you have a garden at home, you know that plants can sometimes be very finicky. Some people joke with me about having a green thumb because of my last name, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I am much better at killing plant life than cultivating it! Besides, my last name is spelled g-a-r-d-n-e-r, not g-a-r-d-E-n-e-r; I’m a Gardner, not a gardener. But even I have picked up a few gardening skills through trial and error over the years.
There is a plant in my kitchen named Herbie. Herbie and I have had an up and down relationship, because I have not always been great at watering him. Nonetheless, I have somehow kept Herbie alive for several years, which for me is an accomplishment. Herbie is a dracaena plant and when I first got him I noticed a little instructional tab stuck into the soil in his pot. It said to stick your finger down into the soil to check for moisture. If the soil was moist in the first inch or so, it didn’t need water. Following these instructions has helped me to care well for Herbie over the past couple of years. At a certain point, when checking the soil in his pot, I noticed that the soil level had dropped a significant amount. Consequently, I went out to the garden section at Walmart and picked up some new potting soil. Thankfully, with Herbie, the process of cultivating his soil has been pretty straightforward. Just keep his pot topped off with soil and well watered and he’s good. But I know with other plants, it can be much more involved. You have to deal with pH levels, mineral content and all kinds of advanced things. These are well beyond my capabilities, and that’s OK. I’ll leave that to the real gardeners. Cultivation is an art!
Today in the Gospel, Jesus talks about the importance of cultivating our souls, but He brings it up in an unexpected context. His parable about the fruitless fig tree comes on the heels of a seemingly unrelated conversation. Jesus is responding to peoples’ questions about others who have undergone great and unexpected suffering. Did God allow their deaths as a punishment for their sinfulness? But Jesus takes the opportunity to reframe their thinking. He mentions both the Gallileans who suffered at the hands of the Romans, and others who died when a tower fell on them in Siloam. In both these cases, Jesus points not to the sinfulness of those who suffered, but to the importance of repentance. Essentially, Jesus redirects his listeners to stop judging others and instead to consider the state of their own hearts. He exhorts them and us to be concerned with repenting in our own hearts so that we might be ready for great suffering and trials, and ultimately that day when our earthly journey ends. He says: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” Jesus reminds us today that repentance helps us to cultivate our souls in the time we have right now, so that no matter what happens to us in the future, we will be ready to face it.
Which brings us to Jesus’ parable. He speaks in the parable of a person who is frustrated because the fig tree planted in his orchard isn’t bearing fruit. He complains to his gardener about it, saying that it has been three years with no fruit. He wants to get rid of the tree, but the gardener holds him off, asking for a year to cultivate the soil around the tree to help it bear fruit. By telling this parable after speaking of the importance of repentance, Jesus shows us the end goal of repentance. We repent not just to give something up, but to gain something as well. When we turn away from sin, it is an opportunity to turn toward the God who loves us and wants to see our lives flourish with abundant fruit.
This is what we are invited to experience in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There are many layers to what God does for us each and every time we meet His merciful love in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have already pondered several layers in this homily series. On the first Sunday of Lent, we saw how God strengthens our souls to armor them for the battle against sin. Last Sunday, we recognized the beauty of the freedom from slavery that God wants to give us in Reconciliation. But not only does God arm us for battle and free us from enslavement through Reconciliation, He also cultivates our soul so that it can be a place where virtue flourishes.
Every analogy we have for Reconciliation is limited in some way. If we think about Reconciliation like a process of cleaning, we can tend to relate it to inanimate things: just like a good wash cleans off a dirty shirt or a car, so Reconciliation cleans our souls. This is correct. But there is more, much more! The analogy of a plant is also helpful, because a plant is a living thing. Just as we care for a living plant by cultivating the soil around it, so God cares for us living beings by cultivating the soil of our souls in Reconciliation. We are made for more than just avoiding sin. We are made to flourish in virtue! Our souls are made not just to be cleaned every once in a while, but to grow steadily throughout our lives.
When we receive Reconciliation, it is an encounter with the powerful hand of God reaching down to tend the soil of our hearts. Remember Herbie? I have kept Herbie’s leaves green by tending to the soil in his pot. In those times when his leaves started to yellow, I knew I was falling short of cultivating his soil well.
God not only knows what He wants us to avoid, He also knows what He wants us to become. In Reconciliation, God wants to cultivate our hearts so we become more who He has made us to be! He doesn’t just want to make us avoid lust, he wants to cultivate chastity in our souls. He doesn’t just want us to avoid gossip, he wants to make us into intercessors for those who need our prayers the most. He doesn’t just want us to stop lying, he wants to help us courageously speak and stand up for the truth.
Let’s ask the Father as we go to Reconciliation: “Father, what are you trying to cultivate in my soul right now?” He will show us if we are open to Him. This is why I began Lent by challenging you to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation a monthly habit. Imagine what would happen in the next year if you let the Father cultivate the soil of your soul through the abundant grace of Reconciliation once a month?
+ Father, thank you for tending to our hearts through your Son’s grace in Reconciliation. Jesus, thank you for reminding us of the importance of letting the Father cultivate our souls. Holy Spirit, give us a deeper desire for Reconciliation so that our hearts can grow in the holiness we were made for! We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +