Cut It Down and Get Rid of It?

Just throw it away! That's what I would think as a young boy when I saw bruised, discolored, old fruit. But my Father always had other ideas. He would cut the bruised or 'bad' potions of the fruit away and feast on what was left. My grandfather had been a fruit peddler, filling his cart in the morning and walking the streets selling his fruit. At days end, all that would be left was bruised and old fruit that no one wanted. My grandfather would cut away the not so good parts, and the rest his family would have so as not to waste anything. That's how my dad grew up and he never lost that view. That something good could be salvaged.
  Sunday's gospel contains one of the fig tree parables. In this particular one, the fig tree that produces no fruit is the chosen people, the owner of the garden is the Father and Jesus is the gardener. The owner notices the fig tree that has not produced fruit in three years despite being given the nutrition and care it needed to do so. Exasperated, the owner asks for it to be pulled from the ground and discarded. But the Gardner, Jesus, asks for more time as he Weill give it even more love and care in an effort to produce fruit. He then declare that , if at the end of the time no fruit is produced, then it can be discarded.
   Well for us the parable gives almost the same message. The only difference is that we are the fig tree. And our extra help from our Gardner is coming through the word of God, the sacraments of our church, and prayer. And Jesus is always offering us the support and guidance we need to be fruitful in our efforts to do the Father's work.
  This is a big task and a bit scary. What is we can't produce? What if we try and fail? Are we to be cut down and discarded at the time of judgement? These questions may cause to freeze us in our tracks. One might say, "I've done good work until now, why try and chance ruining that?" But here I believe in a God of mercy. I believe in a god that loves us so much that He would give His only Son a life of pain, suffering and death to help us. And I believe that in all of our works, when the judgement time comes, Jesus will cut away the bad and rotten parts and say to the Father, "I died on the cross for these." And then producing the good fruit He will show the Father all the good that came from our lives, an d the Father will show us His great love and mercy.