BOKASYONG AGUSTINO MINISTRY

PN. Armando Gabriel Cruz Felix

Quezon City, Philippines

One of the most important quality a good gardener must have is patience. From the sowing of a seed up to tending it to become a tree comes a great deal of patience. It is because a garden requires great labor and keen attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill intentions. They thrive because someone invested time and expended effort on them.

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The gospel today talks about the parable of the fig tree wherein a man told the gardener to cut down a fig tree which never bore a single fruit for three years. But the gardener insisted to give the tree another chance and made an oath to cultivate it for another year. And if ever after a year it did not still bear fruit, the tree may be cut down as what the man had commanded.

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The first thing that crosses my mind after reading the parable was the idea of HOPE. It may sound cliché but it is the truth. I remember a quote which says “To plant a tree is to believe in tomorrow.”

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When we sow a seed, we believe that someday this seed will grow into a strong and luscious tree. We are also aware that it will take days, weeks and even years to make this miracle happen. For growth is never an overnight activity.

I would like to relate this tree in the parable to us, brothers here in the seminary.

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Everything begins with a seed. We all begin as a seed. A seed which has the potential to become a tall evergreen. A beautiful, magnificent towering tree. But often times we thought that our height and strong woods are the only things that matter. We fail to realize that there is another important thing that we must produce. It is to bear a fruit.

Brothers, as I stand here I don’t just see people but hopeful seeds. Seeds that hope to turning into trees. Trees that have the potential to produce the most delightful fruits on earth. But sometimes we tend to be afraid that a day would come when we’ll just wake up cut in half like trunks of a tree lying on the floor.

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Well I say to you, do not be scared, because I believe there will always be a gardener who believes in our potentials. Someone who will give us chance to grow, to strive, and to thrive. Someone who will cultivate the soil where we stand, who will prune our ugliness and undesirables, who will sprinkle us with joy and love, who will nurture us into becoming an unyielding tree, and who will fertilize our souls into bearing wonderful fruits.

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I think that as seeds in the garden of our Lord, we should not only hope for becoming tall and handsome trees, but it is also important that we must strive to bear fruits that are delightful in the eyes of God. Fruits that are rooted from humility. Fruits like virtues, talents and good deeds.

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I think if there would be an ingredient for making the best fertilizer to reaping the best fruits, perhaps it would be a combination of Patience, Humility and Faith.

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Patience on producing our best fruits through hard work and industry, Humility that will serve as foundation of our virtues and good deeds and Faith which means surrendering ourselves completely to the best gardener, Our Lord God Almighty.