Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 / 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 / Luke 13:1-9
There is one common characteristic in all living beings.
And that is all living beings can feel pain.
This is most evident in human beings and animals.
Plants are living things and they may not feel pain like the sentient beings.
But something usually happens when a branch or stem is cut off from a plant or tree.
That part of the plant or tree oozes out some sap or liquid.
We may wonder if that is a sign of pain from the plant or tree.
Generally speaking, pain is a sign that is calling for attention.
So, if it is physical pain, then medical consultation is needed.
And there are also other pains like mental or psychological pains.
It is said that when we can feel pain, we are alive. And when we can feel other people's pain, then we are human. (Leo Tolstoy)
So, as much as we want to avoid pain, yet, pain makes us human, and enables us to empathize and have compassion for others who are in pain.
In the gospel parable, the owner of the vineyard told the gardener to cut down that fig tree that did not bear fruit for 3 years.
But the gardener felt for that fig tree and asked for one more year.
In a way, that parable tells us that God is like the gardener who feels our pain.
Jesus was sent to save us and heal the pain caused by our sins.
As for us, we can choose to ignore, or to pay attention to our physical and spiritual pains.
To ignore is to be indignant and to even ask for trouble.
To pay attention to our pains would make us alive and also to be attentive to what the Lord is showing and telling us.
And when we heed the call to repentance, then we are also becoming more human.
We begin to feel the pain of the faults and failings of others, and to feel compassion for them.
And we have also become like the gardener in the parable; we will also pray and plead for mercy and forgiveness for others and especially for sinners.
In doing so, we unite ourselves to Jesus in His pain and suffering on the Cross, to save humanity from their sins.