Readings
Exodus 3:1-8a, 10, 13-15
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9
So that every fig tree may flourish
By Randy Haluza-DeLay, Animator for Central Ontario
Our passages today include pleas for liberation from suffering, a warning from Jesus about repentance, as well as a parable that points out that we should actively do what we can to help the flourishing of others. In the first reading from Exodus, Moses is called by God because his tormented people are crying out, believing that God will relieve their suffering.
The unjust and unsustainable debt faced by many countries around the world creates suffering. Since so much money flows back to loaning institutions located primarily in affluent countries of the Global North, the ability of governments to provide education, health care, social programmes and climate adaptation is constrained. That is why the Share Lent campaign from Development and Peace — Caritas Canada (DPCC), which is shared by the entire Caritas Internationalis network in this Jubilee year, is called Turn Debt into Hope. As Moses and the Israelites find, God hears the cries of His people, knows their sufferings and delivers them. The first request of Turn Debt into Hope is the cancellation of unjust debts as a means of deliverance for the people, which involves our advocacy for God’s deliverance to come to fruition.
Jesus tells two parables in the Gospel passage. In the first, he asks if those in Galilee and Siloam are suffering because they are worse sinners than others? He declares an emphatic NO! to that idea. Jesus then tells his listeners to repent, implying that they should also reject the notion that suffering is due to the sinfulness of “those” people.
When a country’s debt makes its people suffer, we should not assume that this suffering is due to errors of the people or leaders (even though poor leadership may contribute to a country’s debt crisis). We should look for other reasons. Catholic Social Teaching notes that our ability to live life well or even to make morally good choices―especially choices that have the greatest benefit for the common good―may be constrained by unjust social structures.
Catholic Social Teaching refers to these as “structures of sin.” These structures are often institutionalized, which is why two of the three requests of the Turn Debt into Hope campaign petition pertain to the creation of a better financial system and a mechanism for debt resolution. Without these changes, another debt crisis will likely emerge in the future, because people are not delivered from ongoing structures of sin that perpetuate greed, corruption and the like. As Pope Francis writes in the Spes non Confundit (“Hope does not Disappoint”), his call for a Year of Jubilee in 2025, “The Jubilee reminds us that the goods of the earth are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone.”
The second Parable in the Gospel reading reports how a landowner wanted to cut down a fig tree which had borne no fruit for several years. But the gardener asks for mercy for the tree. He says he will add fertilizing manure to its roots, and they will see if it bears fruit. In other words, extra care will be taken for this particular tree, in the hope that the extra attention will help it to flourish.
Probably the gardener removed some of the nutrient-deficient soil and replaced it with the nutrient-rich manure. When it comes to international debt, we can similarly consider what will help people in indebted countries around the world bear fruit.
One way of fertilizing the flourishing of people in indebted countries is to, as Pope Francis urges, “forgive the debts of people who will never be able to repay them,” thereby creating the possibility of better lives. This is a way DPCC implements our orientation to serving people. We hear the cries of the poor and the cries of the Earth suffering under financial debt and ecological debt. We repent of a bad system and join the Master Gardener in solidarity with people around the world via Share Lent and the campaign to Turn Debt into Hope. Thus, trees that once were struggling may bear fruit in the full flourishing of God’s desires.
Pope Francis specifically addressed some of his Jubilee call “to the more affluent nations.” As part of Jesus’s call for repentance, perhaps wealthy nations especially should conduct a more critical self-examination and consider how we who live in them have benefited from unjust global financial arrangements. Pope Francis then specifically observed that “‘a true ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the Global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time.”
For centuries, the now-wealthy nations have drawn natural resources from countries that are now poor and struggling because of that system. Furthermore, as some nations industrialized, they became wealthy, and deposited their waste products onto others, such as using the atmosphere as a free dumping ground for climate-change-causing carbon emissions. The rich nations of the world owe an ecological debt to the rest of the world. The difference is that to ignore this debt would perpetuate an injustice to the rest of the world, while cancelling financial debts would deliver justice for billions of people.
This Lent, we hear the cries for liberation from the people, we examine our spirits and how our actions have caused suffering to others and we do what we can to remove and replace suffering with flourishing.
