GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 8TH Week in Ordinary Time, 29 May 2026

Mark 11:11-15.  At first glance, today’s gospel tells of an act by Jesus that appears to be spiteful and vengeful by the cursing of a fig tree, no less.  It seems so out of character by Jesus that we are taken aback until we realise that what he did was a parable in actions rather than words.  Taken that way, as an allegory, the incident makes much more sense.  The fig tree occurs frequently in the works of the prophets as a sign of the people of Israel, who were to bear much fruit by following the commandments of God and fidelity to his covenant with them.  But Jesus finds a fig tree that is fruitless.  The withering and unproductive fig tree is a sign of God’s judgement on Israel for failing to be fruitful, as God created it to be.  Then again, fruitlessness, the failure to bear much good fruit, is frequently mentioned in Mark’s gospel as a sign of the lack of prayer, faith, and obedience to the way of God (see 4:1:20; 12:1-2). 

This enacted parable is the prelude giving meaning to Jesus next action, which is the cleansing of the Temple of traders and moneylenders.  It is a sign of God’s judgement on the Temple and its corruption and its emphasis on the splendour of ritual acts, rather on works of justice and peace-making.  The Temple, too, is failing to bear fruit, like the fig tree cursed by Jesus.  It was failing in its work to be a ‘a house of prayer for all peoples but had become a den of thieves’ (v. 17).   Jesus’ act of righteous anger by cleansing the Temple of those corrupting it is a sign of God’s judgement.  At this, the decision of the Temple authorities was to have Jesus put to death.  These were dangerous moments in Jesus’ life.

The thing for us to take away from  this gospel is the question of fruitfulness, of prayer, of fidelity to God’s Covenant with us.  In one way it applies to the spiritual life of each of us, to our own way of being with the Lord, responding to his call.  In another dimension it applies to all of us as the Church, and our corporate fidelity to God’s way and his Covenant, rather than its possibility of being gradually eroded or compromised by following the ways of the world.  In either case, judgement follows a failure to take heed of Jesus’ acts and words.