Overview:

The Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

A Reflection for the Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

“I know your works;
I know that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish you were either cold or hot.
So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold,
I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15-16)

Find today’s readings here.

Over the past few years, there has been a trend among young women on social media based on Sylvia Plath’s metaphor of Esther Greenwood sitting at the base of a fig tree, looking up at its branches and thinking about the various paths her life could take. Will she be a housewife with a happy home and children? Will she be a poet or professor? An athlete? Engage in a series of passionate romances? Will she travel the world? In The Bell Jar, Esther, paralyzed by the choices, chooses none of them: She starves to death, surrounded by abundance, as each fig dries up and falls to the ground.

The TikTok-ified version of the trend is less morose—it’s generally some version of “I have too many big dreams and don’t know which to choose,” and plays out in a world in which women have many more options, even to pursue multiple dreams, than Esther Greenwood or Sylvia Plath had. But it speaks to a very real human anxiety: Choosing one thing necessarily means leaving another un-chosen. The root of the verb “decide” comes from the Latin “de” and “caedere,” meaning something like “to cut apart.”

In today’s first reading from Revelations, God tells the church in Laodicea that he wishes they were “hot or cold,” not “lukewarm.” The author connects their lukewarmness to their wealth—they think they need nothing else. They have chosen to follow Christ, but halfheartedly. Maybe they want to keep their options open.

This image of lukewarmness stands in contrast with Zacchaeus, the tax collector in today’s Gospel who scrambles up a fig tree mainly, it seems, out of curiosity or a spiritual search. Luke says he wanted to “see who Jesus was.” Jesus spots Zacchaeus in a tree and calls him down by name, asking to dine at Zacchaeus’s house that night. Zacchaeus immediately decides to give away half of his possessions and pay back any money he has extorted from people four times over, which would presumably take up quite a lot of his remaining resources. “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus announces. It is the exact reward he promised to the church in Laedicaea in the first reading: “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.”

Zacchaeus’s story provides some interesting contrasts that, I think, show a bit of what God hopes for us. In addition to the obvious contrast with the church in Laodicaea in the first reading, which remains attached to its material comforts and only follows lukewarmly, there is also a contrast with the rich young man who Jesus meets just before this Gospel passage. Jesus tells that man to give away all his possessions, and the man leaves, unable to do it. Zacchaeus may not—we don’t know—give away all he possesses by the time he finishes repaying the money he extorted. But he makes a decision and takes a concrete action to back up his choice, and in that way is not lukewarm.

Recently in Uruguay, Pope Leo likewise urged young people—perhaps some for whom the “fig tree” trend resonated—not to fear commitment when it comes to choosing a Christian life:

Friends, young people, dare to take the step of marrying, starting a family yourselves. Do not be afraid of “forever”! Married couples, open your home to life, even when the world tells you that a child is a burden. If any of you feel that Christ is calling you to leave everything behind to follow him in the priesthood or in consecrated life, do not ignore that voice out of fear of missing out on other opportunities. When being just and honest comes at a price, pay it. When forgiving seems like a defeat, forgive. When everyone tells you to think of yourselves first, do not be afraid to put yourselves in the last place. Be willing to give up time, money, comfort and plans to serve others. May those who see you find themselves asking: “Why do they live in this way? Where do they get this freedom? Why do they love one another so much?”

It turns out that freedom does not come from keeping our options open and starving at the base of the fig tree; it comes from choosing a branch, picking a fig and eating it wholeheartedly.

Colleen Dulle is the Vatican Correspondent at America and co-hosts the "Inside the Vatican" podcast. She is the author of Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (Image, 2025).