God and sinners

When disasters strike, there are often religious people who say the disaster is God’s punishment for the sins of those afflicted by the disaster.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speaks against this idea in the first part of today’s Gospel (Luke 13:1-9):

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!

God gives blessings to his faithful and the ways of sin end in death, but God does not always mete out punishments and blessings within this world in the simplistic ways that we human beings might think.

Indeed, as our Lord tells us in the second part of today’s Gospel, God is very patient with sinners, like a gardener with an unproductive fig tree.

We need to heed the warnings of death and destruction in the world around us. We may find ourselves before the Judgment Seat of God at any time, whether by disaster, accident, or illness.

(Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.)

Moreover, we must never despair, even if we have long accustomed ourselves to particular sins or walked long down sinful paths.

No matter what, at this moment God gives us the opportunity to turn to him and open ourselves more fully to his grace so that we may bear the fruit of repentance, forgiveness, and eternal life.

We need to let God cultivate us (as well as the ground around us – our lifestyle) so that we may bear the fruit of his grace in truth, love, and joy.