Enter the Mystery

The Monday of Holy Week is often called Fig Monday because, according to the gospel accounts, on this day Jesus cursed the fig tree.

For many, it’s a bemusing bit of the events of this week. So here’s the gospel passage followed by a short poetic reflection

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.”

(Matthew 21:18-22)

Before the Fig Season


At first, silence, awkward, endless,
sending some away,
your brothers lost for words,
leaving us alone beneath the early leaves,
as we remembered the sweetness of figs.

You etched your name
with the sharp end of your fingernail
into the white bark,
leaving your mark in the wood
telling the world you had been there.

Only later, when the roots had died,
did I see the thin line of blood dried
in the fold of your fingernail and,
carved into your skin,
a splinter of the whitest wood
to which you seemed oblivious.
I had never seen you bleed before.

Dean Atkins