Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 28, 2021
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area.
He looked around at everything and, since it was already late,
went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.
Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf,
he went over to see if he could find anything on it.
When he reached it he found nothing but leaves;
it was not the time for figs.
And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!”
And his disciples heard it.
They came to Jerusalem,
and on entering the temple area
he began to drive out those selling and buying there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the seats of those who were selling doves.
He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.
Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written:
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples?
But you have made it a den of thieves.”
The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it
and were seeking a way to put him to death,
yet they feared him
because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
Early in the morning, as they were walking along,
they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.
Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look!
The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God.
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,
‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’
and does not doubt in his heart
but believes that what he says will happen,
it shall be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer,
believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
When you stand to pray,
forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance,
so that your heavenly Father may in turn
forgive you your transgressions.”
Among my friends are these two guys, both named Mike. They’re absurd humans and intolerably funny. In one of their on-going bits, they respond to some over-the-top insult with, “Harsh! …But fair.” I promise you, it’s hilarious.
To Jesus, who withered an out-of-season fig tree and shut down several small businesses, I say, “Harsh! …But fair.”
Harsh, because it’s not fig season. Jesus is the Word of God, and “All things came into being through him” (John 1:3)—he, of all people, should know it’s not time for this tree to give figs. Harsh, because buying and selling in the temple helped people fulfill their religious duties. It seems unreasonable to foist such expectations on a tree, or on people trying to get by. There’s a dissonance between table-flipping Jesus and friend-of-tax-collectors Jesus.
And yet, it’s all fair. Fair, because Jesus’ very being in the world remakes it. The usual way of doing things can’t withstand the creator re-creating. Christ the teacher illustrates this by withering the fig tree. He upends an expectation and uses his students’ surprise as an opening to instill a new idea: “If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.”
Fair, because Christ’s coming into the world throws the hard edges of our religion into relief. We all fall into the trap of thinking of our faith like a to-do list, treating our rituals as transactions that earn us credit with the Almighty. The temple marketplace may have started as a practical service, but by the time Jesus walked in and upended the tables, it had evolved into something legalistic and extortionary. Moreover, as we know with the benefit of hindsight and catechesis, only one sacrifice suffices for our redemption: the Lamb of God himself.
The potency of our faith doesn’t come from acts of offering, but from acts of trust. Nothing takes us beyond grace—neither our need for it nor its reach to reclaim us. Nothing God asks of us is beyond our reach, be it bearing fruit when we think we can’t or forgiving the injuries done to us.
Prayer
Lord, you teach us that faith can move mountains and bear fruit of justice and peace in our world. But faced with all the troubles in our world and in our own lives, it is so easy to give into doubt and despair, wondering what difference we could ever make. Renew our faith in you and your power working through us, so that through our faith we may become part of your response to all the many prayers of our broken world. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Bernard of Montjoux was a saint of great hospitality who not only welcomed travelers crossing the Alps to visit Rome and the Holy Land—in many cases, he saved their lives.
He was born in Italy in the tenth century, and after his ordination to the priesthood he was appointed to a position that entailed caring for small village communities in a region of the Alps. This area included two of the most accessible passes through the mountains that were used by pilgrims traveling from northern Europe to Rome and the Holy Land.
The pilgrims traveling through the Alps through these passes faced many dangers. The temperatures in the mountains could easily freeze a person, and some did not expect to confront the snow that they had to trudge through in higher elevations, not to mention the threat of avalanches. In addition, robbers would frequently take advantage of the isolation and narrow pathways to ambush travelers and take their resources and gear.
Bernard assembled a patrol of civilians and cleared the mountain passes of these robbers. He also established two hospices at the summits of both passes, which welcomed travelers of any background and continue to do so today. The group of people who joined Bernard to staff the hospices fell into a regular community life together, which was formalized into a monastery. That community still exists to serve travelers in that region.
The famous large-breed rescue dogs that are named after St. Bernard were first used to rescue stranded travelers by the hospice communities founded by the saint. St. Bernard is patron saint of mountain climbers and skiers.
St. Bernard spent 42 years as a priest serving the people of this region. In addition to serving travelers, he founded schools and reformed parishes throughout the area. He lived to be 85 years old and died on this date in 1081.
St. Bernard of Montjoux, you saved pilgrims in the Alps from avalanches and robbers—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bernard of Montjoux is in the public domain/available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed March 11, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
