Luke 21,29-33 – Friday of the XXXIV Week of Ordinary Time – Odd Year
“Look at the fig tree and all the plants; when they already sprout, looking at them you understand for yourselves that summer is now near.” A fig tree sprouting, summer approaching, the small but eloquent signs that accompany the seasons. It’s as if Jesus told us that our spiritual life also has its own time, its own rhythm, its own maturation. But we are often blind to the signs. We want immediate certainties, unequivocal proof, quick solutions.
Jesus instead teaches us patience: the ability to read the presence of God within the ordinary folds of life. The sprouting fig makes no noise, does not attract attention, yet announces an imminent change. Likewise, grace works without fanfare. It grows in hidden gestures, in daily loyalties, in the small “yes” that no one sees. But we prefer extraordinary events, heroic outbursts, immediate miracles. Jesus instead reminds us that the Kingdom passes through normalityand that to recognize it you need to have an eye trained on hope. Then he adds a powerful phrase: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” It’s as if he puts a choice before us: to rely on what changes or what remains. Our securities, our emotions, even our most solid beliefs can falter. The Word does not.
His promise is not like ours, fragile and conditioned: it is a rock. And if we rest our life there, even when everything around us seems to change, we are not overwhelmed. The problem is that we often live as if our fears were more real than the word of Christ. All it takes is one disappointment, one unexpected event, one crisis, and it already seems to us that everything is lost. But today’s Gospel is a call to trust: it reminds us that God does not play hide and seek. He speaks to us, guides us, anticipates the signs, like a friend who doesn’t want to leave us alone. Learning to recognize the sprouts is learning to believe that history does not go towards darkness, but towards fulfillment. And that inside every pain, every wait, every winter of the heart, God is already preparing a summer that will arrive, inevitable and faithful, like His word.
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