Politicians and the cursed fig tree
In just a few lines, Christ delivers a very strong message. He expects from everyone an all-time consistency in Christian faith and life, regardless of the pressures, for nothing is impossible with him. This is the story of the cursed fig tree, found in Matthew 21,19-22 and Mark 11,13-26.
It’s a simple story of how Christ saw a fig tree full of leaves, and yet not finding fruit. It was not the season for bearing fruit, and yet our Lord cursed it: “May no fruit grow on you henceforward forever.” (Mt 21,19) The tree dried up.
We may think our Lord was unreasonable. But then again, it is our Lord, who is God, speaking. He must know whereof he spoke. It is us who need to defer to him, rather than the reverse.
In fact, the lesson Christ drew from this story is that we should trust him, no matter how difficult the circumstances may be. “Have the faith of God.” (Mk 11,22)
Expanding on that, our Lord said: “Amen I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Arise, and hurl yourself into the sea,’ and does not waver in his heart, but believes that whatever he says will be done, it shall be done for him.” (Mk 11,23)
The point is clear. There will be extraordinary moments in our life when everything, if viewed purely humanly, may look unreasonable, impossible, inhuman, etc. But if it is the will of God, then we just have to do it, trusting always in him more than in ourselves. We need to trust God and not ourselves.
This has happened in the case of the apostles. Our Lord just told them, “Come, follow me,” and they followed. They were very ordinary, simple people entrusted with the impossible job of working with Christ for the redemption of men.
Their weaknesses were undisguised. Peter was impulsive. Matthew, being a tax collector, you can just imagine what shenanigans he was doing. Think of Judas. All apostles were easily affected by merely human and natural difficulties.
Except for Judas, they did the impossible, simply because they trusted Christ in spite of their defects. And what was impossible to them was always possible to God. Going through the lives of saints will yield the same lesson.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we have this beautiful hymn of what faith can do for us: “By faith, they conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, recovered from weakness…” (11,33-34)
We need to make adjustments in the way we think, feel and react to all kinds of events, especially the difficult ones. Faith and trust in God should always dominate.
We need to detach ourselves from our own selves. Otherwise, how easy for us to fall into doubts, fears, cowardice, self-pity, sadness and then hypocrisy, deception, infidelity, despair, etc.!
This point is, of course, meant for everyone. But we can apply it today most especially to our beloved politicians who in their line of work might be tempted to lose trust in God because of certain difficult issues.
We pray that they use the faith given to them as a gift, and that they don’t throw in the towel just because of the pressures. They have to be consistent to it but respectful always of the requirements of truth, justice and charity, especially in the public arena
One of our modern scourges is to find Christian politicians who suspend, ignore and even go against the faith for political expediency. Some have invoked the widespread foolishness of the doctrine of Church-state separation.
That doctrine is terribly twisted by all kinds of people. In its original version, no word, no line in it ever teaches a Christian believer in public life to set aside his faith just because he is a politician, or a businessman, etc.
Others say they have to be politically correct. They need to flow with the times. Still others are simply confused or are in error and may not even know it. This is the case of the invincibly ignorant. But that’s unlikely, what with all the information we have.
I appeal to those Christian politicians who are for the RH Bill and the condoms, etc., to be consistent to their faith. Otherwise, Christ, not I, will curse them: “May no fruit grow on you henceforward forever.”
Now is the time for them to stand up for the faith. Be brave, be consistent!
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
