We're all sinners in need of repentence, right? Jesus makes that clear in today's Gospel (Lk 13: 1-9) where He reminds the crowd that they are no better than the people in Galilee who were killed by Herod or the 18 people who lost their lives in the collapse of a tower at Siloam. Those events did not befall those people because they were greater sinners, Jesus points out. We will perish, like those who died, "if (we) do not repent," Jesus says. Then comes the good part, the part that causes us to rejoice. Jesus tells a parable about a gardener whose master wants a tree cut down because the tree hasn't given fruit for three years. Give me more time, the gardener asks, just one more year, so I can work with it, nourish it, water it-- and it may still give fruit. After that, if it still produces nothing, it can be cut down. So, unlike the people killed by Herod or the ones who died when the tower collapsed, Jesus tells us that we have time. We have time to repent-- which means to change our direction, our orientation, our destination. The story is a parable, which means we can't take every detail literally-- we don't necessarily have a year. We may only have a day. But that is all we ever have, right? We don't know about tomorrow, and we can do nothing about yesterday. But we can influence today-- right now-- this moment. We have the opportunity right now to turn to the Lord, and it is the easiest thing possible. I was on a retreat this week at New Melleray Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Iowa. One of the things we talked about a lot was prayer and, you know what, it turns out that prayer is the simplest thing around. We imagine that there are all sorts of rites and rituals, and right ways and wrong ways to pray-- not true at all. All we have to do is remind ourselves that we're in God's presence and go from there, speak from our heart, listen with our souls, experience God's love. So when we talk about repenting, that's what we're tallking about-- turning towards God. It is the path to sainthood. No, we don't become saints in one moment, or one day-- but that's how we start, by turning to God in prayer. And this moment, right now, is all we've got. This moment is the time we can make that turning, that gesture, that beginning, towards a life that will bear fruit, towards sainthood. All it takes is a start-- just a moment in prayer, followed in a bit by another moment. Then there is tomorrow, and a chance to do the same, and perhaps a bit more. Pretty soon you feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and you're led to get closer to God, perhaps with more prayer, or with changed attitudes or with greater faith. Do it today. Start to turn, even if only a little. Starting is the hardest part, and today is the day to do it. It is the only day that we know we have.