Gospel Reading for March 23, 2025 – Luke 13: 1-9
CONTINUATION
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose 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 way they 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 killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than 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 tree but 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.’”
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“Que sera sera” or “whatever will be, will be” is a Spanish phrase and title of a song popularized a long time ago. This is a very expensive phrase when the risks are too heavy and pertains to the possibility of losing the chance to enter Heaven after death. We never know when our time is up. So many of us say that we are not READY to die yet. We can never be READY unless we live a truly Christian life. The afterlife is just a CONTINUATION of the kind of life we lived on earth. But there’s more – this time, God will reveal himself to us and we will have the chance to live with him forever in peace and happiness so much unlike what we have here now. There will be no more strife, wars and all kinds of conflict but just the purest of peace and happiness we can ever have. It is like winning the FIRST PRIZE!
Lord Jesus, teach us to not procrastinate changing our evil ways, teach us to repent at the soonest possible time, because we can never be sure if we still have time!
