On Guadete Sunday 2023 I looked again at last year’s post. Because I love the name Guadete, love the the readings on this last Sunday of Advent: John is again a witness speaking about the light to come, a light “to bind up hearts that are broken,” to free us from the things that blunt our joy. Guadete is a reaffirming of the power of light. For some of us, it places the story of Jesus and Christmas in a cosmological framework .

So this year the fig tree is not yet fruiting but is doing well. I’ve put compost and pea straw around it again ,and chopped off the branches that hit my head every time I tend to it

. So here’s the post, a bit late and the heralded Christmas is here.

I was out on the garden again fiddling with my suddenly huge fig 🌳. I’m surprised at how it has still managed to sprout new branches , despite vigorous pruning a few months ago. Moreover it has secretly been producing figs. Maybe it is hiding them from the cockies that eat them every year, but I only spied the nearly ripe ones when I reached under the canopy to remove weeds.

Today is Gaudete Sunday in the church calendar. The third Sunday in Advent . Rejoicing Sunday. Even for non believers it’s a lovely term, containing the joy in this lead up to a special birth. For once in the liturgy there are no threats or bribes or reminders of the horrors facing non believers.

Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult

let the wasteland rejoice and bloom

let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil

let it rejoice and sing for joy,

( Isiah 35 v 1,10)

There are lots of biblical quotes about fig trees putting out branches. I realised today that all the water and pea straw and care I have spasmodically lavished on this tree might be irrelevant .

The tree has its own mind and I can chop and water and care or not care, but it spreads where it will and grows fruit regardless. The figs I picked before the birds are not ripe. So they’re on the window sill to ripen, hopefully.

Lesson from figs over .

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