Parable of the Withered Fig Tree

8. When they left Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree some way off, he went to see if he could find something on it; and having come to it, he only found leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then Jesus said to the fig tree, “May no one eat any more fruit from you,” which  his disciples heard. On the following day, as they passed by the fig tree, they saw that it had become withered  down to its roots. And remembering Jesus’ words, Peter said to him, “Master, look how the fig tree that you cursed has become withered.” Jesus answered  him, saying, “Have faith in God. Verily I say to you that whoever  says to that mountain:  ‘Be uprooted and cast yourself into the sea,’ without any doubt in his heart but firmly believing that what he has said will happen, will see it actually happen.” (Mk. 11:12-14; 20-23)

9. The withered fig tree symbolizes persons who have only the appearances of goodness, but who in reality produce nothing that is worthwhile: orators who are more flashy than substantial, whose words display the varnish of superficiality; they please the ears but upon close examination nothing substantial for the soul is found in them. After hearing them, one asks what benefit was derived from listening to them.

It is also the symbol of all persons who have the means to be useful but are not; all the utopias, all the empty theories and all the doctrines that lack a solid foundation. What is most often lacking is true faith, productive faith, the faith that stirs the fibers of the soul; in other words, the faith that moves mountains. They are trees that have leaves but no fruit. That is why Jesus condemns them to barrenness, for a day will come in which they will become withered down to their roots, which means that all the theories, all the doctrines that have not produced any good for humankind will fall into nothingness; that all deliberately useless human beings, for lack of having put into practice the resources they had in them, will be treated like the withered fig tree.

10. Mediums are the interpreters of spirits, supplying the physical organs that they lack to transmit their teachings to us; that is the reason mediums have been endowed with faculties to  this  effect. In  these times of social renewal, they have a particular mission: they are the trees that must provide spiritual nourishment to their brothers and sisters. They are multiplying in number in order for this nourishment to be abundant. They are found everywhere, in all countries, among all social classes, among the rich and the poor, the great and the small, so that none are disinherited, and to prove to humankind that all are called. However, if they divert from its providential purpose the priceless faculty that was conceded to them, if they make it serve pointless or harmful matters, if they put it in the service of worldly interests, if instead of healthy fruit they bear unhealthy fruit, if they refuse to render it useful to others, if they derive from it no benefit for improving themselves, they are like the barren fig tree. God will take away a gift that has become useless in their hands: the seed they have not been able to bring to fruition, and God will let them become the prey of evil spirits.