2022-03-20 Bulletin

So many chances

Some people told Jesus about the Galileanswhose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.Jesus said to them in reply,“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this waythey were greater sinners than all other Galileans?By no means!But I tell you, if you do not repent,you will all perish as they did!Or those eighteen people who were killedwhen the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guiltythan everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?By no means!But I tell you, if you do not repent,you will all perish as they did!”And he told them this parable:“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,he said to the gardener,‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig treebut have found none.So cut it down.Why should it exhaust the soil?’He said to him in reply,‘Sir, leave it for this year also,and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;it may bear fruit in the future.If not you can cut it down.’” (Lk 13:1-9)

The Gospel passage begins with people talking about some Galileans who were killed by Pilate. With his ruthless acts of terror, Pilate was considered a ‘madman’ by the people under Roman occupation including Jews and Samaritans. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that Pilate had disrupted a religious gathering of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim with a slaughter of the participants (Antiquities 18:86–87), and therefore the slaughter of the Galileans in Luke’s Gospel, whose blood Pilate mingled with the blood of their sacrifices, would be something that Pilate would no doubt had done. 

Jesus used that occasion to teach the people that just because some people die in a gruesome or an untimely death does not mean that they were greater sinners than the rest of them. Just think of the martyrs who were tortured and killed. Let’s face it. Good things happen to wicked people while bad things happen to good people. But when we start judging who’s good or bad depending on the good or bad things that happen to them in this life, then we are making a big mistake. The murder of the Galileans at the hands of Pilate (Lk 13:1) and the accidental death of those on whom the tower at Siloam fell (Lk 13:4) were incidents which Jesus used to preach to the people of the need for all to repent. People who think that they have no need of repentance are the ones who most need to repent.

The parable of the barren fig tree broadens the call to repentance to another important point – God’s patience. But when we speak of the patience of God, we are not talking about God enduring hard times until things get better; rather, we are talking about God being patient with people who continue to ignore Him. Scripture reminds us of it; it says: “Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. (Ps 103:8)” The parable of the barren fig tree teaches us that God continues to be patient with those who have not yet repented (cf. Lk 3:8). How remarkable it is that people repent in so different ways, times and places, and yet God allows each person to come to Him in their own way. It is a testament to God’s great patience. However, the time to repent is now, because despite God’s patience and the number of chances that He has given us, the delay of our time of reckoning is not forever and it will come when we least expect it.    

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As we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary on March 19, let us take a moment to reflect on this great Saint. There had been at least two popes who had written exhortations to the faithful regarding St. Joseph: Pope Leo XIII in his papal encyclical Quamquam Pluries on August 15, 1889 and Pope John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos in August 15, 1989. In these papal documents, both popes had sought to promote the devotion to St. Joseph.    

While the Annunciation of the birth of our Lord Jesus to the Virgin Mary was recorded in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 1:26-38), one can say that the Annunciation to Joseph can be found in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 1:18-25). On one hand, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to tell Mary that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of His Son; on the other hand, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him not to divorce Mary, to take Mary into his home and to name the child Jesus. The role of naming a son belonged to a father, therefore in effect, the angel was telling Joseph that God had chosen him to take the role of an earthly father to Jesus. Just as Mary consented to God’s will, Joseph also consented by doing as the Lord had commanded him. Joseph’s consent united him in a very special way to the consent of Mary. They both accepted in faith the mystery of the Incarnation, and together, Mary and Joseph became the first guardians of this divine mystery.

Through the Incarnation, Jesus became part of a human family. Such is a testament of God’s great love for humanity. In this human family, Joseph is the father: his fatherhood is not due to his begetting of the Son of God; rather, his fatherhood is due to the authentic role and mission of a father to Jesus. At the finding in the temple in Jerusalem, Mary asked Jesus: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” (Lk 2:48). Jesus answered, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49) There really is no conflict between Mary’s question and Jesus’ answer. Mary’s question confirmed the human nature of Jesus; Jesus’ response confirmed His divine nature. The conclusion of this Gospel passage also confirmed the role of Mary and Joseph as Jesus’ human parents: “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” (Lk 2:51).

In his papal encyclical Quamquam Pluries, Pope Leo XIII exhorted the faithful to pray for the protection of St. Joseph as Patron of the whole Church; he explained: “The reasons why St. Joseph must be considered the special patron of the Church, and for the Church to derive great hope from his care and patronage, chiefly arise from his having been the husband of Mary and having assumed the role of the earthly father of Jesus. Joseph was in his day the lawful and natural guardian, head and defender of the Holy Family. It is thus fitting and most worthy of Joseph’s dignity that, in the same way that he once kept unceasing holy watch over the family of Nazareth, so now does he protect and defend with his heavenly patronage the Church of Christ.”

Exactly one hundred years later, Pope John Paul II exhorted the faithful in Redemptoris Custos: “May St. Joseph become for all of us an exceptional teacher in the service of Christ’s saving mission, a mission which is the responsibility of each and every member of the Church. This just man, who bore within himself the entire heritage of the Old Covenant, was also brought into the “beginning” of the New and Eternal Covenant in Jesus Christ. May he show us the paths of this saving Covenant as we stand at the threshold of the next millennium, in which there must be a continuation and further development of the “fullness of time” that belongs the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word.”

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Prayer List: Zheng Zhiming, Wang Dacheng, Carolyn Johnson, Pan Bohao, Long Guorui, Zhang Qiang, Xu Taicheng and Qiu Laihao.