“Learn a lesson from the fig tree…”
--Mark 13:24-32
The Lesson of the Fig Tree: thirty-third Sunday in ordinary Times
For the past few weeks I have noticed a theme in the readings at mass: the importance of paying attention. It seems to me that regardless of whatever else is going on, Jesus keeps reminding His disciples (and us) to open our eyes—to see!
In today’s readings, both the Gospel and the passage from Daniel (12:1-3) speak of fearful signs and earth-shaking events that sound a lot like the end of the world. The reading from Hebrews (10:11-14, 18) alludes to a final judgement, and the Psalm (16) offers a kind of road map for how to traverse troubling times: Keep your eye on the Lord.
But notice that instead of telling His followers to run for cover or to buy generators and stock up on canned goods and self-composting toilets, Jesus offers a very different kind of advice: pay attention. Last week Jesus sat down in the temple area and watched the people, then drew the disciples attention to the action of one particular poor widow. This week’s call to attention takes more of an arboreal approach.
“Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near. In the same way,
when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.”
The “He” Jesus speaks of is the Son of Man, a term that would have had messianic and apocalyptic associations for the people of Israel. Daniel uses it to refer to a heavenly figure, perhaps the archangel Michael, who will come and set Israel free from the Babylonian captivity, but when Jesus uses it, He seems to refer to Himself. But, it is interesting to me that the lesson Jesus gives us here isn’t about how to recognize the actual “Son of Man” (whoever he is), but instead how to recognize that he is near. Already at the gate, even… The lesson is about noticing things that we might not think matter—like the gift of the poor widow. As Jesus tells the disciples, her tithe of two or three pennies is worth more than all the money and jewels (or large checks and endowments) the wealthy place in the weekly collection basket.
What I hear in this reading is less a warning about bad things that might be coming, and more a reminder to always Pay attention!
Watch, listen, learn—God is with you already, nearby, at your side, in fact! Look at the trees, look at the stars, look at the wonder of nature. See it. Feel it. Know it.
I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth.
