Our Sunday Gospel in our year C readings contains two examples of tragedy. In the first, some Galileans had been murdered by Pilate; in the second, 18 people were killed by a falling tower. These tragedies posed for Jesus’ listeners the question we all ask: Why must innocent people suffer? Jesus does not answer except to say that it is not their fault, that what happened to them had nothing to do with their innocence or guilt. Life itself is “iffy.” Many people become victims, their lives shortened by disease, crime, war, accidents, weather and climate events. Jesus himself will be one of them, a victim. But as he discusses this mystery of human 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” during the precious lifetime we have been given. The Gospel ends with an image of God as a gardener, willing to give a 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