Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There are lots of fig trees in the bible.  We can think biblically about fig trees for a moment and realize the awesome treasure of symbolism found therein.  They symbolize the human experience of being found and mercifully forgiven by God. 

Adam and Eve ran from God into the garden (see Genesis 3). As they hid, they pulled branches off the trees near them, which happened to be the leaves from fig trees (folia ficus in Latin). They covered themselves with these leaves in a vain attempt to keep God away. There, under the fig tree, amid their sin, God found them.

Zacchaeus was a sinful man who lived in a sinful city. To see Jesus, he had to climb a “sycamore-fig tree” (ficus sycomorus in Latin) (see Luke 19). This tree also has figs, which are edible only once they have been pierced and ripened (see Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History). Zacchaeus used the tree to find God. And there, in the fig tree, in a state of sin, God called him.

Nathanial was one day under a fig tree (sub ficu in Latin). We don’t know what Nathaniel was thinking or doing, but somehow, he wished for God to see him. Perhaps Nathaniel also had a conversion to God in his heart, and there, under a fig tree, amid that existential moment, God saw him. 

For Adam and Eve, Zacchaeus, and Nathaniel, a life-changing moment happened in the shade of a fig tree. The light of God dispels the darkness and “shade of sin” in our lives, and we are called to step out from behind, from inside, or from under whatever the “fig trees” are in our lives.

In Christ, each one of us has salvation. Like Adam and Eve, like Nathaniel and Zacchaeus, all of us, in whatever state we are in, need to be found under our personal fig trees. This Lent, if we are willing, God will find us.

Love.

Fr. Jason