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God's faithfulness | 
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pathways, February 2010
 This year's Third Sunday of Lent is the day before International Women's Day, on Monday, March 8. This September will also mark the 10th anniversary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Social Justice Statement in response to Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus.
A parish kit has been distributed to each parish in Australia to help the Church celebrate International Women's Day which has been observed since 1911.
Among the kit's resources is a homily suggestion from Dominican Sister Josephine Armour who is a member of the Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW). The gospel for the Sunday is the parable of the fig tree in which the vineyard owner wants to cut down an unproductive fig tree but the gardner pleads for one more year.
Sister Josephine writes, in part:
... The gardener in this parable can be likened to our God, who in faithfulness to us, desires more than anything, the flourishment and the fullness of all life.
The nurturing of life is also a quality we associate with parenting. Mothers and fathers desire the best for their children and want them to fulfill their potential. When children are sick or suffering we see parents go to any lengths to provide the care and nourishment that is needed to restore that child to health.
Many parents watch their children struggle with psychological burdens, mental illnesses, or drug dependency but this does not lessen their love for that child, nor their faithfulness to their children.
Tomorrow is International Women's Day across the world ... It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements, without regard for divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.
Many women, whether mothers, carers or friends show to us the qualities which this parable speaks of today.
Thousands of women have throughout history, cared for others with the same spirit of faithfulness that the gardener of luke's parable showed. Many have gone unnoticed by the world, because that care and love is provided in the quietness of a home, or in the company of perhaps only one or two others. It is the nurture that takes place day by day with encouraging words, a consoling touch, a meal provided in a time of stress, or even an unexpected birthday card or a smile.
Let us remember these women, the women in our lives who mirror the work of the gardener, giving the extra nourishment to the tree that might bear nothing.
Perhaps the tree will not ever come to fruit, but that is not the question asked by the gardener. The gardener, provides all the care possible in the hope that the fig tree might fruit. And of course, it is not only women who mirror the work of the gardener. All people can do this for in doing so, we do the work of God. We show the face of God to others.
It is important that we value the way of being in the world which provides nurture and encouragement. It is a way traditionally attributed to women ...
International Women's Day originated in 1908 in New York amongst women garment makers demanding better working conditions in the company. The women were working in very poor conditions, earning half of men's wages and dying too early in poor health.
In 1910, an international conference of women determined that each year a day should be set aside to help build a society which values diversity, tolerance, safety, social justice and social equality between women and men.
The recognition and celebration of International Women's Day as part of the annual international calendar began in 1911.
As we consider how we can help to build a world where these qualities are valued let us today reflect upon the parable that Jesus told and upon the faithfulness of the gardener who dares to give the tree further chance to grow. May we come to know more fully the God of faithfulness, who said in ancient times and still says to us today, "I have seen your suffering, I have heard your cry."
Accompanying the kit is a Letter to the Women from the Catholic Bishops of Australia, under the hand of Archbishop Philip Wilson (Adelaide) and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
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