The Tender Mercy of God The first part of our Gospel leaves a lot of room to fill in the blanks! We don’t know anything about the two tragic events reported in the gospel. Jesus uses these events as teachable moments. These events involve tragic death, and Jesus uses these tragedies to make absolute that unless we repent, we also will die! Then, using the parable of the fig tree, Jesus reveals the patience of God with us, despite our slowness to repent.This is God’s work of mercy; to take what is almost dead and coax it to new life. [Living Liturgy 2010] Standing secure in the graciousness of the new life God offers us does not mean that we don’t need to cooperate with God to cultivate and fertilize our spiritual lives. God waits for us to bear fruit. God waits each and every day of our lives for us to bear fruit. The Good News is; God never gives up on us. All we need to do is respond by dying to self and God brings forth new life in us. Musical Reflection