Gospel: Mark
11:11-26
Jesus
entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything
and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next
day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig
tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he
reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he
said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again! And his disciples
heard it.
They came
to Jerusalem and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those
selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and
the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything
through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: My
house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. But you have made it a
den of thieves.”
The chief
priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to
death, yet they
feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening
came, they went out of the city.
Early in
the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its
roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you
cursed has withered. Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I
say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the
sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will
happen, it shall be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in
prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand
to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your
heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”
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Reflection:
Do you always see Jesus as someone who is always,
merciful, gentle and compassionate? Some parts of this gospel show us the other
side of Jesus. A Jesus who gets angry with those who choose not to bear fruit. A
Jesus who gets angry with those who do not give the respect and reverence that
the temple of God truly deserves.
Is this anger of Jesus justified? Of course it’s
justified! His anger toward the fig tree was not for the fig tree per se. It
was for those people who know that they could do something for His mission. But
for reasons of selfishness and not daring to go out of their own comfort zones
they chose not to do anything.
Many of us are like them we don’t do something to
advance the mission of Jesus in this world. We don’t want to be labor for
Jesus, we don’t want to sacrifice our time for Jesus. We rather choose to spend
time for our own self gratification.
Why is it that many of us do not want to labor and
sacrifice for Christ? Is it because there’s no money that could motivate us to
do it? Yet money is but a miniscule part of life, we will not find the true
meaning of life with money, with power or anything that emanates from this
world.
We can only find the true essence and meaning of life with
Jesus only with Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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