Cultivated By Penance | Third Sunday of Lent | Sunday Reflection

Today’s Gospel comes to us with the beauty of divine timing. We’re now well on our way through the course of this year’s Lent, and Jesus intervenes to speak to us about the importance of the penance which we have hopefully begun. Our blessed Lord wants to encourage us, to inoculate us against the daze-inducing stupor of routine and lukewarm complacency, which all too easily settle upon us.

Jesus opens a window for us upon the spiritual realities which are all around us. God is looking for us to bear fruit. He gives us so many graces - through the sacraments, through prayer, and even unbidden and unrecognized - and His expectation is that these graces will not return to Him empty. He gives these gifts for the gradual transformation of our hearts - to purify us of every area of our lives which is not yet an expression of love, to expand our capacity for giving ourselves to others, ultimately making us into a living icon of God’s goodness, clothed with mercy, joy, and freedom.

But, if we are honest, perhaps God has been coming to us for years and not really finding much fruit. Jesus uses an analogy that just about anyone can understand if they’ve ever had a garden in the backyard. When something isn’t producing fruit, we realize that there is a problem. Plants are supposed to produce fruit; when they don’t, it means that something has gone awry. Well, our spiritual lives are the same way. If we aren’t producing real fruits manifested by a growth in virtue and our capacity to love, that’s a sign of some problem. Because like the plants, we were created to thrive, to grow, to achieve the full measure of God’s beautiful plan for our lives. But this doesn’t happen automatically. Like a good gardener, we have to be attentive, and when we notice a problem, we need to take action before the prospect of a good harvest is thwarted for the season.

Things tend to grow better if they are cultivated properly and given a bit of fertilizer at the right time. Commenting on our Lord’s parable, St. Ambrose identifies the fertilizer in question as humility. We can grow by leaps and bounds in the spiritual life once we come to a deep conviction of our own dependence upon God. Unfortunately, humility often comes about through experiences which are humiliating. Like fertilizer, this stinks, but the unpleasantness can be made worthwhile if we use humiliation as a means of growth. It’s not easy though, since humiliation tends to stir up our pride as a means of defense. Thus, the great challenge behind Christ’s words: “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Easier said than done. That’s why prayer can’t be merely an adornment to our lives; it has to be the center. We need Christ’s grace to make us strong, to uphold us in trial, and to make us victorious in temptation.

In addition to the fertilizer, a little bit of cultivation goes a long way. This means pulling up weeds and pruning the plant. In the case of our spiritual lives, a good place to begin is by identifying what spiritual writers call our “predominant fault.” This is the type of sin which gives us the most trouble and underlies many of our various other difficulties. This varies from person to person, depending on our personalities, our life experiences, etc., but it can usually be pared down to one of the following - pride, greediness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, or laziness. While we may have struggles in several of these categories, take a moment to consider which is the one that seems to be rooted most deeply, giving birth to entire patterns of thinking and acting in your life. That’s your predominant fault. Simply being aware of it and able to name it is already a big step forward because now you can do something about it. You can start to prune those thoughts, those actions, those destructive habits, from your life. And you can begin consciously cultivating the opposite virtues - humility, generosity, chastity, kindness, temperance, and diligence.

Knowledge is powerful. If we know our primary area of weakness and the spiritual remedy that can make us stronger, we’re well on our way toward producing more abundant fruit in our lives. But we do need to be patient with ourselves as well. Things which are deeply rooted are hard to change, and progress comes gradually rather than all at once. We should be prepared for stumbles and setbacks. But Christ is here to raise us up. He comes carrying the cross, offering us the royal privilege of sharing it with Him. Will we not take up our cross daily and walk with Christ? This is the drama of the Christian life. We are on a journey toward eternal life, and to get there, we have to take real steps.

Our Savior surrounds us with His grace which makes all things possible. Frequent sacramental Confession and the devout reception of Holy Communion are the two big fountains of grace that are always available to us. The Lord promises, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Let us then approach the altar today eager to receive the strength we need to grow, to flourish, and to bring forth abundant fruit in God’s time.