Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

REFLECTION:



When I first moved into the rectory, there was one small potted plant there. I knew I didn’t have a green thumb, but I figured I should try to make sure it grows. At first, I thought the poor thing was going to die, but then I looked up videos and learned how often to water it, how much sunlight it needed, and how to care for it. That little plant is still holding on — actually growing! Now I’ve added three more to my rectory, and I’m making it a habit to take care of them.

That small experience reminds me of what St. Paul says in Romans 8:3: “For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, God has done by sending His own Son…”

Paul is saying that our human effort alone isn’t enough. Just as a plant cannot grow without light, water, and care, we cannot grow spiritually by our own strength. The law — our human striving, our discipline, our “I’ll do better next time” — is good, but it’s powerless without grace. Only the Holy Spirit can make life grow where sin once took root.

That same message echoes in Luke 13:1–9, the parable of the barren fig tree. The owner wants to cut it down, but the gardener says, “Give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.” The gardener doesn’t give up; he cultivates it with patience. That’s what God does with us. He digs around the dry soil of our hearts and pours in grace through the Spirit — not because we earned it, but because He loves us enough to bring us back to life.

Sometimes we try so hard to “fix” ourselves that we forget: it’s God who grows us.

Our job is to stay rooted — open to His Word, nourished by His grace, and patient with His timing.

Because when we allow the Spirit to work, we see what our flesh could never do on its own — the fruit of new life.