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Why does Jesus curse a fig tree?

Matthew 18-22 Jesus Curses a Fig Tree Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” So during my nightly reading of the Bible, I read this passage. At the time, I didn't know how to take this reading. It was so odd and a bit out of character. I mean, Jesus gets mad that the fig tree didn't have any fruit so he curses it. Compare this to when he fasted for forty days and forty nights and he w...
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First Sunday Lent Gospel Readings

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it w...
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Kindness is a powerful force

My husband and I have chosen to go to another Catholic church after our parish priest berated the whole congregation for having the audacity of being born white and how we should be guilty for it. We both have been disagreeing with the priest's homilies, but that last homily was the final straw. This new church isn't the greatest, but switching churches has been a long time coming.
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Why does Jesus speak in parables?

When I was younger, I did try to read the Bible, but I don't remember getting much out of it. I was trying to be a good Protestant and read the Word of God. I even had a list of verses and passages picked out by preachers that pointed out parts of the Bible that dealt with different issues we all face like those passages that dealt with love, death, suffering, etc. But when I turned to the those pages, I read them and didn't understand. I would think, "How is this suppose to be about (this) when Jesus is telling a story about something completely different?" (I don't remember exactly what I read.) I just remember getting frustrated and closing the Bible. I didn't understand that Jesus spoke in parables for a reason. Of course now that I'm an adult, I can try to understand more of what Jesus was really saying through these parables. I don't pretend that I understand everything, and I'm always interested in what other people get out of these storie...
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Jesus is NOT a socialist

I felt compelled to write this post because everyone (including my parish priest) references the story about Jesus and the fish and bread that he hands out to everyone. As if that automatically makes Jesus a socialist, and if you don't agree with Jesus, then you might as well go to Hell, you horrible capitalist. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but this story comes up a lot.
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Lectio Divina: Jesus and Beelzebul

Okay, I've been missing the Lectio Divina that I was doing for awhile, so I'm trying to bring that back. So how I start is by literally just flipping around the Bible. Not a very methodical way of doing things, but honestly, that is how I always read the Bible. I'll read a few passages and reflect on it. Sometimes I'll find something right away. Sometimes, I'll keep flipping, reading, and reflecting until something strikes me. This whole passage is just mind-blowing. I hate the word "unpack" but that's exactly what I'm going to do ("Unpack" is such a triggering word from Common Core standards. Ugh).
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Virtue Signaling: I'm really tired of it

So I go to Saturday vigil Mass, and everything was normal until the homily.
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