Curse of the barren fig tree (Mt 21,18-22)
The day before (the first day of the week, now it is Sunday), the crowds had acclaimed Jesus as the Messiah on the way to Jerusalem, as “the Son of David” (the Messiah), but when they reached the gates of the city, they denied him as the Messiah. They had waved branches and covered the ground with them... branches and more branches... but without a faithful heart.
Now on Monday, He curses a fig tree because He found only leaves (more leaves!) and no fruit. Although it was not the season for fruit, since God is almighty, the fig tree should have borne fruit, because God's infinite merits are not lacking.
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He does not command this fig tree as He commanded the sea and the wind when He calmed them. Now He comes looking for fruit, but the fig tree does not give it to Him. The Church has always interpreted this fig tree as representing the Jewish people. They are condemned for rejecting God made Man. [And now everyone who does not believe that Jesus is God goes to hell, Our Lady of the Roses tells us. We understand that believers in Jesus have already reached the whole Earth and those who reject Jesus do so of their own free will. Moreover, anyone who rejects the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers, will be rejected for Heaven.]
The fig tree, like all the Nature, suffers the consequences of our sins. Jesus is Lord over all that exists, and rules everything with mercy and justice. When He commands or allows disasters in the Nature, they are either a warning to mankind or a punishment. For example, the Chinese (communists) have very aggressive fishing methods that destroy life in the oceans and capture many species that they then throw back dead, killing more than they catch. Many environmentalists complain about such senseless destruction, but little can be done against those evil people. Only God can save us from communism, when the Pope deigns to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart (best to the Sacred Hearts, naming them separatedly) together with all the bishops, naming Russia and performing an act of penance. And why does God allow so much destruction of life in the sea? I think it is because people in our countries allow the abominable crime of abortion against the children that God sends and whom He loves so much. The crime of teaching them sex education and indoctrinating them in LGBT ideology and abortion is even more horrific because it leads them down the wrong path to hell.
In the early 1990s, birds began to arrive in my city, and in the middle of the night or at 4 a.m., they would start screaming loudly. They woke us up... they wouldn't let us sleep. I suppose it was a sign from God to wake us up and pray. Soon, many social and economic misfortunes befell our country, and 12 years later, we ended up sold to Chinese communism, which, at first, only imposed laws such as abortion and homosexuality (so that God would be angry with us and have to punish us) and now shows its slave-driving fangs.
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And we... do we give Jesus the fruits of penance, good works, and virtues? Do we make sacrifices for the Church? Do we try to do everything as perfectly as possible, as was the motto of St. Teresa of Avila? Or does catechesis only entertain us for a while, as if we were shaking branches, saying: “How beautiful, how interesting...” and then we continue as before, or worse, because we reject the excellent catechesis that God gives us.
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Do you read the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers? Do you obey them? She, for example, asks us to protect ourselves with the Sacramentals, to pray thinking and feeling what we say. She does not want “lip service” but that we pray with our hearts. How do we pray? Are our words just more leaves?
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Jesus tells us that whatever we ask for in faith, He will give us. Let us ask in faith, first, for our conversion, that He may help us to be saints, to fulfill what He had planned when He created us, to know Him, love Him, and serve Him as He wants.
(*) This is for adults: Like all civilizations, the US still has a long way to go, since any country or person that accepts abortion and homosexuality will be destroyed. USA President Donald Trump is doing things to make the USA honor God, which is wonderful. But no one is perfect, especially if they are not totally devoted to God. The USA is abandoning Europe commercially and in terms of defense, and this is pushing Europe into trade agreements with China and Ukraine into accepting peace treaties with Russia. This is wrong because the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses say that anyone who makes treaties with communism will fall under communism. Jesus, as a just God, warns us not to fall into sin and He rewards every good thing we do in this life. If we live in mortal sin and are not earning eternal life, He rewards us for everything in this life. If we are striving to be holy, He gives us what we need to sustain ourselves in this life and reserves the great rewards for eternal life.
Let this be clear. The fruits we have to give to God are spiritual. The problem was not that the fig tree had no fruit, but that it did not bear fruit for God. Children are gifts from God whose souls we must educate for eternal life, so that they may know, love, and serve God from their earliest childhood. The Old Testament says, “Do not rejoice in the multitude of your children if they do not fear God.”