3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C

As Jesus nears the time of his Passion, he tells the parable of the barren fig tree in today's gospel (Lk 13:1-9). How are we as Christians to bear fruit? Here are some words from St. Augustine:

Fresco, Christ curses the fig tree

 This is the Father’s glory, that we should bear abundant fruit and become Christ’s disciples, since it is only through God’s mercy in the first place that we can become the disciples of Christ.... 

In his first letter John the evangelist made this quite clear. “Let us love God, he wrote, because he first loved us.” The Father does indeed love us, but he does so in his Son; we glorify the Father by bearing fruit as branches of the vine which is his son and becoming his disciples.

“Abide in my love,” he says to us. How may we do that? In the words that follow you have your answer. “If you observe what I command you, then you will truly abide in my love.”