Today's Catholic Daily Mass readings include Jesus destroying comfortable assumptions about tragedy and telling a parable about a tree that should be dead but got one more year.

Eighteen people crushed when the tower at Siloam collapsed. Dead instantly. People asked Jesus if these victims were worse sinners. That's what we do with tragedy, find reasons why it happened to them and won't happen to us. Jesus destroyed that comfort. No, they weren't worse sinners. But unless you repent you'll perish just like they did. Not maybe. Will. Everyone dies. Most people aren't ready.

Then he told about a fig tree producing nothing for three years. The owner said cut it down. But the gardener begged for one more year. Let me work on it. If it produces next year fine. If not down it comes. That tree should be firewood. Three years taking nutrients and giving nothing back. But someone intercedes for one final chance.

You're that tree. You know you are because you're still alive. You should be dead already spiritually. How many years have you taken from God and produced nothing? If you got what you deserve you'd be cut down. But someone interceded. Christ is standing between you and judgment asking for one more year. Not because you deserve it. Because he's willing to work on what should already be producing.

The reflection confronts the reality that you're living in borrowed time with a deadline you can't see, why the tower's collapse matters more than you want to admit, what it means that death doesn't give warnings, and how many "one more year" extensions you think you have left. This isn't comfortable but it's true.

📖 Readings

Romans 8:1-11

Psalm 24

Luke 13:1-9

⏱️ Timeline

00:00 Introduction

00:15 Reading I - Romans 8:1-11

01:50 Psalm Response - Psalm 24

05:47 Gospel - Luke 13:1-9

06:59 Reflection

Perfect for: Catholics confronting that they're living on borrowed time, Christians facing that death gives no warnings, believers examining what years of grace should have produced that's missing, anyone who thinks they have more time, people who need to hear that unless you repent you will perish, those living in their final extension

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