BETTERING THROUGH REPENTANCE

We begin the Season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. On that day we are reminded that we are mortal beings, death is inevitable for us, but neither our mortal nature nor the inevitability of death can bring eternal end to our being. Yes, through our physical death we pass from this world to next. This passing was the theme of last Sunday. Today we are invited to reflect on death and repentance. The first reading tells us that God hears the cry of the afflicted and comes to their rescue. He calls Moses from burning bush to go and liberate the Israelites from the clutches of Pharaoh. In the second reading St. Paul says that the exodus could not bear it’s fruit as the liberated people could not keep up the instructions of the liberator. Their cry from Egypt reached God, but God’s instruction could not reach their hearts. Their affliction in Egypt gained God’s compassion but God’s continuous accompaniment could not gain their responsible response. This is a pitiable situation. The once afflicted [Israel in Egypt] received help (from God) but could not sustain in that help (following God’s instructions) and bring out the fruit (inheriting the Promised Land forever) of the help they received. Thus, the only way to reverse this pitiable situation is repentance. The reversal not is as much as going back in time and getting the things right but reversal consists in moving forward from present with the lesson learned from the past. St. Paul firmly instructs the community of Corinthians that the exodus event of Israel and its catastrophic consequence should be an example for all generations not to repeat the past. Any event that happens in one’s life or in a particular society despite whether the event is good or bad, contains lots of message. The affected person or the society of the event becomes participant when s/he learns something from that event or else, s/he remains as a mere spectator. The participant becomes wise in facing the further events whereas the spectator submits him/herself to be victim of further events. As followers of Christ we are called to be participants of the event – reflecting and learning from all that happen to us.

In the Gospel, Jesus is told about the tragic event that had happened to Galileans. Jesus seems to be calm in His response. Jesus does not exhibit His anger against Pilate for what he did to His country cousins – Galileans. Jesus uses that information about the tragedy to catechise the people. He tells them that the tragedy of Galileans in Pilate’s hand should serve as an example to orient our lives. Albeit Pilate’s execution of Galileans is not proper, it is not without reason. Galileans are the ruthless people. They take violence against their adversaries. Galileans always create troubles in public gatherings whether be it religious, cultural or political. This is the reason that people find hard to accept Jesus, the Galilean and His non-violent messiahship. By using the tragic end of violent Galileans Jesus invites His listeners not to follow them. His listeners are called to be meek and non-violent. In His catechesis Jesus also adds another natural tragedy (fall of tower in Siloam) that incurred the death of few Israelites for which the victims were not responsible. On the side, a group faces violent tragedy through it’s uncouth behaviour on the other side, another group faces forceful tragedy through it’s mere course of by chance / accidental theory. Both the events show that one’s end is inevitable at the same time the way in which that end approaches the person also unpredictable. Thus, we need to be conscious of our nature as mortal beings who die to earth but not face eternal death.

The parable of an unproductive fig tree in today’s Gospel sends us a strong message that all events that happen in our life – whether be it a death of dear ones, or unpayable debt, or natural destruction, or any incurable illness – should make us participants. The more we become attentive to the events of our life, the wiser we become to handle events in the future course of our life. Repentance in not just moving away from sin, it is a conversion. Each event calls us to conversion. Each event tells us that we have failed in something and need repentance in that area. There are some events that happen in the world which may not affect us directly but we need to get ourselves affected by it. The tragic end of Galileans could not affect any faithful and meek Israelites directly, but Jesus tells them to get affected by learning from the incidents. The situation in Ukraine may not affect us directly but we certainly need to associate ourselves with it to guard ourselves, our family, and our society from meeting the same catastrophe. The unlearned lessons from two world wars have moved the people to promote another war. A leader who has only the knowledge about two world wars but could not learn any lessons from them remains spectator. A society that remains silent about its uncouth leadership remains a spectator society. The challenge for us Christians in today’s world is to get affected by events in one’s life and society and learn from it. Any change that we make after learning from any incidents is conversion. Any bettering of one’s life from one incident to another is Repentance. We learn from tragic end of sinners to move away from sinning. We too learn from unforeseen end of innocents to be ready to meet God at any with worthy preparation. God is patient with us, as the owner of the fig tree is in the parable, to see whether we produce fruits after witnessing many examples around us. Let us be participants to better our lives day by day through repentance.