26 October, Saturday — Repentance

Saturday of Week 29 in Ordinary Time

Eph 4:7-16
Lk 13:1-9

“No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”

It has been more than 6 months since my last confession. The reason is quite simple. For the past two years, I have been attending the 7am Sunday mass at Church of St Francis Xavier (SFX). Unfortunately, there is no confession available at that time.

Recently, I also started to attend the 11.30 am Sunday mass at Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (after mass at SFX). Every Sunday, they have two confessions taking place from 11am. So now, I can go for frequent confessions. My previous reason/excuse has been elegantly removed. Sadly, my last confession is still 6 months ago. Why? Because every Sunday, I walk past the confessional and the queue of penitents with no inclination to stand in line. I guess it is because I can’t think of anything serious to say to the priest. “Maybe next week”, is my mantra!

In today’s gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus has a stark message for all of us. He repeats it twice — Repent or perish. We need repentance from sin to be saved. We need to repent today and not put it off for tomorrow, as we do not know if we will live to see another day. Be warned, for the unrepentant, the mercy of God is not infinite. This is clear from the parable of the vineyard owner who had a fig tree growing on it. For three years, the owner went to the fig tree looking for fruit. He found nothing. Frustrated, he gave orders to chop it down. However, the gardener asked the owner to give it just one more year to water and fertilise it. He was granted a last chance. After one year, the tree would be destroyed if it did not produce fruit.  

This parable has a simple message. We are the fig tree. We will produce fruit when we repent of our sins and remain faithful to God. Today’s responsorial psalm describes what this fruit is in our lives. It is how we will rejoice when we hear them say let us go to the house of the Lord. We will have eternal life with God.     

Next Sunday, I will go for confession at 11am. I will not walk past the line. I want to start being the fig tree that produces some fruit.  

(Today’s OXYGEN by Andrew Sia)

Prayer: Lord, help us to want to go to confession regularly and help us prepare well for it.

Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for the gift of my faith.