There is a story about a woman who had a son. This son was about to be executed by Napoleon for some offense and the mother went before the emperor to plead for mercy.
“Why?” asked Napoleon, “what has he done to deserve mercy?”
“If he deserved it,” the mother replied, “it would not be mercy.”
Grace is a merciful gift from heaven, we cannot earn it or deserve it, and it is through Christ that God offers it to us.
Like the fig tree in the parable, we are not cursed but we are running out of time to show that we are worth saving. It is not that God’s patience with us is limited, but it is we who are limited to our own lives. We have but a short span of time to bear fruit, and we cannot hope to be paid wages if we are unproductive servants.
The gardener who intercedes on our behalf is Jesus. Nourishing and working the soil of our hearts, is the grace that He offers to us.
In the eyes of Jesus we are all equally at risk, the tower could fall upon any of us at any time if we persist in sin. The danger is not from physical death, which is temporary; it is from spiritual death, which is eternal. To spare ourselves that fate we must respond to the offer of grace and work with Our Lord to bear fruitful lives. By this path, we will be saved.
Pax Vobiscum
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