HOMILY WEEK 08 05 – Yr II

Bearing Fruit Faithfully: Memorial – Justin Martyr

(1 Pt 4:7-13; Ps 96; Mk 11:11-25)

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Last fall my garden disappointed me – the potatoes were scabby, the carrots small and the strawberries few and certainly not everbearing. I have no idea why – I just know I was disappointed and can identify with the response of Jesus to the barren fig tree in today’s gospel.

That incident raises another question – why was Jesus so disappointed finding only leaves on a fig tree to the point of cursing it, when it was not the season for figs anyway? The reason, I suspect, is figurative, and holds a message for us and today’s liturgy – we are that fig tree, meant to be bearing the fruit God wants us to bear, every day and always, in every season of our lives. Not to do so is to be, in a way, cursed to a superficial, somewhat barren life.

The readings unfold the fruit God expects us to bear: faith, love, forgiveness and the ability to accept some suffering for the sake of the gospel.

Jesus is very clear on the importance of faith in God and in him. As soon as Peter points out the withered tree, Jesus stresses the importance of total and complete faith in God, an expectant faith that our prayers will be answered. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus points out how to pray so our prayers are always answered. We are to pray in his name, which means according to his will, and that would be to ask for the Holy Spirit, the greatest gift God can give us. That is a prayer God will never refuse.

Very similar to that teaching of Jesus is Step Eleven of the Twelve Step Program of A.A. – “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, seeking only the knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.” All we need ask for in prayer is to know God’s will for us and the power to carry it out – and God will never refuse that prayer.

The reading from 1 Peter is clear on God’s will for us – love. We are to maintain a constant love for one another without complaining and as good stewards of God’s grace, serve one another with whatever gifts and talents God has given to us.

In the gospel Jesus adds the dimension of forgiving, linking that action with the quality of our prayer. Resentment and bitterness in our hearts can block the effectiveness of our prayer.

This reality resonates with the teaching of Jesus in the Our Father – “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” One of the best ways we can forgive is taught us by St. Matthew (15:18) – instead of reacting to hurt by fighting back, fleeing away or freezing our emotions, we can choose to forgive by sharing our hurt feelings with love to those who have hurt us, with no attempt at revenge or punishment. That simple action empties our hearts of those painful emotions and creates a space for God’s forgiveness, peace and joy to flood our being. Victims of sexual abuse will find their innocence, dignity and self-esteem return to them, as they are just like Jesus on the cross and it doesn’t get any better than that.

First Peter adds another quality of bearing fruit in Jesus, and that is redemptive suffering. He advises us not to be surprised “at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among us.” That was probably religious persecution for them at that time. For us it would be to accept some inconvenience or suffering in our lives without bitterness or resentment. Suffering can make us bitter or better. Faith allows it to make us better, to sink even deeper roots of faith, and to emulate the total non-violence and forgiveness of Jesus on the Cross.

In the midst of all this teaching, Jesus cleanses the temple, driving out those who were, in his words, “Turning my Father’s house into a den of robbers.” The background to this event is the desertion of the temple, precisely because of this kind of corruption, by the glory or shekinah of God that had filled the temple when it was blessed (1 Kings 8:10-11).

One of the roles of the Messiah was to restore the temple. What Jesus saw when he “looked around at everything (the first line of the gospel today) was a Court of the Gentiles so busy with commerce the gentiles could not pray, so the temple could not “be a house of prayer for all the nations.” On top of that, the poor were forced to buy their sacrifices from the temple sellers to ensure their purity, so the situation was ripe for extortion of the poor. That injustice is what drove Jesus to act, an act that disturbed the corrupt economic-religious-political system in place. It also sealed his doom and led to his crucifixion (“the chief priests and scribes looked for a way to kill him.”)

Jesus identified himself as the new temple of the glory of God (“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”). On top of that, the glory or shekinah of God did return, not to the physical temple in Jerusalem that Jesus cleansed, but to the disciples gathered in the upper room in the form of wind and fire at Pentecost – an event that transformed them into the early Church, the Body of Christ. We are now the temples of the Holy Spirit, called to bear fruit, to love as Jesus loved us.

The saint we honor today, Justin Martyr, lived the reading from 1 Peter.Justin was of pagan Greek origin born in Sichem, Samaria about the year 100. For a long time, he searched for truth, passing through various schools of traditional Greek philosophy. After being convinced it was impossible for the human person to satisfy the desire for the divine with human strength alone, he converted to Christianity and founded a school in Rome where he initiated his students into this new religion he considered the one true philosophy.

Justin was a persuasive Christian apologist, travelling and teaching widely about Christianity. Denounced to the authorities, Justin and his companions were brought to trial. Court records reveal how they declared themselves Christians, refusing to sacrifice to the gods. Central to Justin’s witness was that the Church was a public reality, not a private club. The Church existed to engage and create public culture. The purpose of the Church was to be seen and heard, as it had a message and a mission that was for everyone, not just for a privileged few. Justin and his companions were condemned to death by Marcus Aurelius, the emperor-philosopher to whom Justin had dedicated an “Apologia,” and martyred about the year 165. Of his writings, two of his “Apologies” survive, as well as a “Dialogue” in which he tells of his conversion.

The Eucharist is the spiritual food that sustained the martyrs in their suffering and nourishes us by Word and Sacrament.

May our celebration help us to be faith-full fig trees, bearing the fruits of love, forgiveness and redemptive suffering all the seasons of our lives.