This past Superbowl Sunday, a small plane crashed into a home here in California and killed five people watching the game. Why we have to suffer, and especially why innocent people suffer, is a question we all ask at some point in our lives. In today’s Gospel, people ask Jesus about a tragedy where innocent people died, and Jesus adds his own additional example. But as he discusses this problem of suffering, Jesus points out that death and why death happens is not what we should be worried about. We should worry about being unrepentant for the bad things we do. We should worry about whether we are producing good fruit. We should worry “about what we have done and what we have failed to do.” The Gospel ends with an image of God as a gardener, willing to give the barren tree another year of tender loving care so it can bear fruit. What kind of tender loving care do I need from our gardener God so that I can be that fruitful image of God I am meant to be?
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia