I learned recently that a comet will become visible in the sky around the date of my 70th birthday. In ancient times comets were considered ominous signs. I thought of getting my things in order just in case but I have so much stuff to fix that I figured all will take care by itself when time arrives for my demise. Someone I know kept worrying about such things until he got to the ripe age of 93 and then he worried no more.
Every time a comet passes by our deranged planet there is always someone who predicts the end of the world. But the world has this habit of being there in spite of the Nostradamus types announcing its demise. David Warren commented quite correctly in a recent post:
A friend, who makes colourful predictions from his readings in the Book of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of the Apostle John, has also a success rate of zero-point-zero. He should give it up. Saint Mark also recommends he desist, in Chapter 13: “But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. … For ye know not when the time is.”
Not that there are no reasons to guess an imminent end of the world or something approximately similar. For example, the EU requesting NATO to authorize the use of long range weapons to attack Russian targets. Poking an angry bear in the eye sounds like one more stupid idea in this age of many stupid ideas but “who am I to judge?” I am living far from the military theatre of operations. If I was German or French I would be planning an extended stay in the southern hemisphere but I am neither and I am already far enough in the underbelly of the world. Some would use a less elegant metaphor instead of ‘underbelly’ but that’s neither here nor there.
“But of that day or hour no man knoweth” and that is a good reason to be alert.
In 13:28 St. Mark quotes Our Lord saying:
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he [or ‘it’] is near, at the very gates. “
A sobering thought reading St. Mark 11:12-14: Our Lord cursed a fig tree that was apparently engaged in deceiving the public about the availability of figs out of season.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.
Jesus made sure that his disciples could hear him cursing the fig tree. I think he was teaching them (and us) something. Firstly, make sure you have figs before advertising for them. But I am sure that was only Our Lord’s way to point at something more important, i.e. Hosea 2, something that the disciples surely recalled from Holy Scripture.
I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my pay,
which my lovers have given me.’ (v. 12)
That was God’s warning to the unfaithful counting on the next harvest of sweet figs, taking for granted the generosity of God but at the same time giving credit to false gods for their blessings.
A prophet mentioned the fig tree to illustrate the necessity to trust in God no matter how dire the circumstances could be. See Habakkuk 3:17-18
Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
and in vv. 12-13 Habakkuk is particularly apocalyptic, dealing with the sudden arrival of God ready to avenge those who offended Him and save His people.
In fury you trod the earth,
in anger you trampled nations.
You came forth to save your people,
to save your anointed.
You crushed the head of the wicked house,
laying it bare from foundation to roof.
One day the time will come for this world to eat the fruit of its own behavior. God has concealed “the day and the hour” so that we “keep on the watch” —it would be wise to check if the branches are tender and leaves are coming forth.
As the summer approaches the figs will make their appearance: a sweet bite for some, bitter slashes with a tender branch for others.
Quod scripsi, scripsi 
RECEIVED VIA EMAIL
From José Carpentier, North Carolina, USA
By the way, I finally, just now, had a minute to read the two posts.[…] The cursed fig tree resembles the present age. “Bear fruit” is a repeating scriptural exhortation. It obviously works at many levels. God thirsts for us, as many of us as we can make. He said so from the cross. God thirsts for souls, for communion, for an increase in love. His thirst is infinite. We thwart him when we thwart conception, when we thwart religious education, when we corrupt innocence wherever we find it, when we pretend that the Church He founded is just one of many on offer. We and our culture and our world become the leafy, barren fig tree that does not know the season.
Meanwhile, we have become so used to the unspeakable, we speak of it without a thought. It takes training to become desensitized to the unspeakable. We laughed at the Victorians for covering piano legs out of an overdone sense of modesty, but our laughter indicates our naivete. The Victorians were reacting to the free love and immodesty of the late 1700s, which immodesty generated the great Napoleonic wars that sickened Europe (and beyond) with death and fear. There is no dividing line between the enthronement of a prostitute in Notre Dame Cathedral as the “goddess of reason” and the first great general war of the people. The Victorian sensibility was a cloth to cover the dead.
And here we are celebrating the unfruitful. We are the showy, empty fig tree.
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From Mark Gardner, North Carolina, USA
Also, […] your lament for the Church was truly heartbreaking. You and l share that concern and have both been treated to rejection by those who are supposed to be serving us in the Spirit. They have made our church desolate. They give a stone to those who come for bread. There are ashes in the mouths of those who ought to be pouring out blessings from the Almighty, and they make an evil mockery of that which was once grand and holy and satisfying. They pollute the Living Waters with their foul doctrines and changed words and wicked sleight-of-hand. And God allows them to. He has ordained that such things will happen and must happen and we must stand witness to the undoing. And perhaps Benedict will prove prophetic in his sayings: that the Church will be down to small groups huddling in their basements, worshipping.. the last remnant of Catholicism on earth awaiting His return. And so be it, if what ‘the Church’ has become is what the church is. Besides what we carry in our hearts, there’s nothing left of the ancient glory and grandeur of the Roman Catholic Church… her garments stripped away, her rituals ruined, her mission perverted, her blessing a curse. It didn’t really take long for the ministers of Satan to destroy her. The host is defiled, the miracles removed, the Truth gutted. And so we watch…tears in our eyes and anger burning in our hearts as we witness the earthly bride of Christ abused, despoiled, turned out to the wolves that wait to finish tearing her apart, and we who love her unable to save her. Now, only Heaven can save her and us. So, let us cling tightly to God and one another and pray hard for His return. Before there’s nothing left to save.
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