Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
During the year on weekdays, we use the Gospels according to Mark, Matthew, and Luke for our daily readings. We started with Mark in January and will finish the week after next. Then we will switch to the Gospel according to Matthew.
We are in chapter eleven of Mark’s account. The events narrated come after the solemn procession in Jerusalem that we celebrated on Palm Sunday and come before the account of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus had come to the temple the day before but had left because it was late in the day. He was returning in today’s reading. He entered the temple, taking control of it just as he had entered Jerusalem to take control it. He had entered Jerusalem by donkey, as a peaceful king. He would enter the temple as one claiming absolute possession of it as its God and Lord.
When evening came, he left the city. The next day the fig tree, which Jesus has cursed the day before for looking good but not producing fruit, Jesus passed again. His disciples noted how the tree had completely dried up and withered to its roots.
Jesus was like a fig tree, one that bore fruit. He was cut down in death but rose again bearing fruit for eternal life. We could see here a reference to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden whose fruit brought life.
The fig tree that Jesus had cursed, on the other hand, did not have faith. Had it had faith, it would have produced fruit in abundance. It could have hurled itself into the sea or risen from the dead. It becomes a warning to us to have faith, like that of Jesus, that will bear fruit into everlasting life. Be a good fig tree.