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Jesus 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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Among
the inalienable rights promised in the preamble of the American
Declaration of
Independence, happiness is the only one not guaranteed. We are
theoretically assured of life and liberty, but happiness we are left to
pursue on our own. During the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," Chris
Gardner correctly points out
that Thomas Jefferson must have understood to put "pursuit" in there,
because no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it, he
says. And pursue it he does. With his finances at less than zero, Chris
embarks on an unpaid six-month internship at the end of which one of
twenty hopefuls will land a job as a stockbroker. Staying one step
ahead of the tax people and moving from apartment to motel to shelter
to subway station, Chris is the model of persistence as he clings to
his dream. For Chris, "pursuit" meant exactly what it said--constant,
persistent, relentless determination. At the same time, he kept
his
responsibilities to his son ever in his mind. With his attitude, he may
not have been able to see a final result, but he knew that he would
have happiness in some form.
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Jesus'
story about the fig tree can be interpreted from the point of view of
being persistent
in giving a person another chance. God consistently gives chances. The
gardener in the parable had worked for three years already. Together
with the owner, he was ready to give up, but the gardener tells the
owner to try it for one more year. And not only that--he will give
it more of an opportunity to produce: he will fertilize it in hopes
that it will bear fruit. The gardener was persistent in giving the fig
tree the chance it needed to do what it should do.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told the story because he wanted to shock the religious leaders into seeing that they were not bringing about the end that God had intended. The tree had no fruit. God in the person of Jesus was giving them one more chance after several before and even provided life-giving nutrients in the form of his own teaching to produce results. Jesus was persistent in wanting to give happiness. Being persistent is a virtue that is profitable in all human living, whether spiritual or otherwise. We feel like giving up on things, like happiness will never be ours completely, that there are too many obstacles, that things simply never will work out. At a time like that, we must be persistent in pursuing the goal we want. It is true that the end result may never completely satisfy us, but persistence will bear results, always. As with Chris Gardner, it will mean happiness in some form. |
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THOUGHT
In what area of your life right now should
you be more persistent?
PRAYER Good
and gracious God, you, together with your Son, are most persistent in
wanting to give us happiness even in this life. One of the virtues that
we should learn from your Son is his attitude toward persistence. Help
us understand it, and put it into effect in our daily living. Be with
us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |
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