20 March 2022 – 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C
20 March 2022 – 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C
(1) Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15
God pities his people in Egypt and will free them, through Moses
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
Responsorial: Psalm 102: 1-4, 6-8, 11
R./: The Lord is kind and merciful
My soul, give thanks to the Lord,
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings. (R./)
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love
and compassion. (R./)
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons. (R./)
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him. (R./)
(2) 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
We must persevere, in order to be saved
I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
The Lord of the vineyard offers us ample chance to bear fruit
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them-do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next ear, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Inviting us to think again
Some unnamed people spread the news about the slaughter of some Galileans in the holy precincts of the Temple. The perpetrator has been acting on the orders of Pontius Pilate. They add the horrifying detail that the victims’ blood has been mixed with the blood of animals that were being offered in sacrifice. We don’t know why they brought the news to Jesus. Did they want him to express solidarity with the victims? Or did they want him to explain what sin those victims could have committed to merit such a shameful death? Or why God allowed them to be murdered in the sacred area of the temple?
Instead of a direct answer, Jesus recalled another tragedy that happened in Jerusalem: the death of eighteen people crushed by a falling tower near the pool of Siloam. Then he made two comments about both events. First, that victims were no more sinners than anyone else. And second, that any such tragedy can serve as a warning about the shortness of life. “Unless you repent you will all perish as they did”.
This roundabout answer should make us stop and think. Jesus rejects the popular myth that all misfortunes are divine punishments.. We are not to imagine a stern, punitive God who metes out sickness, accidents, misfortunes, as a response to people’s sins. Then he changes the topic and invites them to examine their own lives. They must listen to God’s call to conversion and to a change of lifestyle.
On our mass-media we often learn of tragic earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. How can we reconcile such tragedies with our belief in divine providence? Jesus suggests that rather than asking how God could let them happen, we should wonder what positive lesson we can learn from then. Rather than ask, “why does God allow this misfortune”, let’s ask, “how can we leave so many human beings to live in misery, so defenceless and ill-provided for?” We won’t find salvation by protesting at God or denying his existence, but by doing our bit to mitigate suffering in our world. Then, maybe, our heightened awareness of the fragility of life will bring us closer to God.
Learn from the gardener
Death stares out at us from our newspapers and TV screens. Apart from natural deaths, somewhere in the world there’s always some natural calamity, a terrorist attack, ethnic brutalities, murder for gain, epidemics, tsunamis, earthquake or famine. Death does not predict its calendar, but is a certain fate for us all. People who were expected to live to old age die suddenly while others whose childhood was marked by illness often survive to a remarkable age.
Our reactions to other people’s death can be either a philosophical acceptance like, “Maybe it was his/her time to go” or a more shocked sense of loss: “It should not have happened so soon!” When people told Jesus how some Galileans died, victims of Pilate’s anger, they wondered how God could have let this happen; but instead of explaining it, Jesus asks “do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?” He goes on to warn about the need of repentance.. “unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!” and illustrates this with the parable of the fruitless tree.
Real repentance is a reflection about whatever is unfruitful in our lifestyle. Jesus’ words “Repent or you will perish” remind us of what Socrates said at his trial, after he had opted for death rather than exile: “The un-examined life is not worth living.” The parable of the fruitless fig tree is thought-provoking. It is not about doing wrong but about failure to do what is positively right. The fig tree that bore no fruit is like a Christian who attempts no good work and lives a purely selfish life.
Francis of Assisi once invited a young friar to go with him into town to preach. Francis and the young friar spent all day walking through the streets and then came home. When the day’s journey was done, the young friar was disappointed and asked “Weren’t we supposed to preach today?” Francis replied, “Son, we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We were seen by many and our behaviour was noted. It is of no use walking anywhere to preach unless we preach wherever as we walk!” He summed up his idea in these words “Preach the Gospel everywhere, and if necessary, use words.” To him witnessing to Jesus wasn’t merely quoting some words out of the Bible from time to time but one who lives by the word of God each day.
The gardener in the Gospel asked the owner of the vineyard to give the barren fig tree another chance to produce fruit. He promised to dig around it and manure it, to give it one last chance to prove itself. It suggests that we too need to nurture our faith and commit ourselves to being helpful to the lives of others. Are we nurturing our faith and trying to love, so as to bear the kind of fruit God wants from us?
Readings: 20 March 2022 – 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C
Key message:
Let us undergo the training in the school of the Holy Spirit!!
The quicker we pass, the quicker we will be fruitful.
Takeaway from the first reading:
God always trains His children before signing the appointment order for them for the task He had planned for them. For example, in today’s first reading, God had a big plan for Moses. But God did not just walk to Moses and say, “Take my children out of the slavery of the Egyptians.” He had trained Moses in different ways all his life. Moses had to go through the training in the wilderness also for 40 years before he received his appointment order, near the burning bush. He received the appointment order in God’s holy mountain, Mount Horeb. So God carefully plans and prepares the time and space for any of the tasks.
The people of Israel saw Moses as a mighty prophet. But they were unaware of the special wilderness training he had undergone through the 40 years.
The more the training, the bigger will be the responsibilities.
As we have read now, God always trains us for the job He has prepared for us. All of us need to undergo that training. God would like to work on our unforgiveness, hatred, selfishness, etc. and make us useful material. The training lasts as long as we become what God desires us to become. So the length of the training depends on how quickly we cooperate with God and become what He intends us to be. If we are rebellious then the training period also will get extended. So let us work along with God and complete our training. Then God will make us fruitful children in this world.
All of us will have the training phase, appointment order phase and work execution phase. The completion of our training phase in the wilderness depends on how quickly we cooperate with God!!
Takeaway from the second reading:
Short story: Robert had a three-year-old daughter, Ria. Robert loved Ria and bought her a lot of gifts to make her happy. But Ria always complained about each of the gifts that she received and was never satisfied. As time passed by, Robert lost interest in buying gifts for Ria. Whenever he went to the shop to buy the gift for Ria, he thought about the complaint that she would find in the gift. This demotivated Robert and eventually Robert got fed up with his little daughter.
In this story, Robert loved Ria and Ria loved Robert. But since Ria had a complaining mindset, Robert could not even do much to Ria, even though he wanted to. Now let us assume Ria had a thanksgiving mindset. Any gift to Ria would make both Robert and Ria happy. So Robert would be flooding Ria with gifts, making both of them happier.
Robert and Ria refer to our Almighty Father and the Israelites in the second reading. But now “Ria” refers to each one of us.
Let us always praise and thank God instead of complaining and grumbling!!
Takeaway from the Gospel reading:
Today’s Gospel reading gives a beautiful explanation – we are not better than those who undergo painful tragedies in their life. Our Lord Jesus tells us very clearly that if people experience tragedies it is not because they have sinned more than others. Tragedies and painful sufferings cannot be a measure for anyone’s sins. In our church history also we have seen that saints have always suffered much more than normal human beings. Actually, it is their suffering that has raised them to sainthood.
Hence, let us embrace all suffering people, and take care not to treat them as sinners.
In the second part of the Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ explains about the training He provides to us to become fruitful. The Holy Spirit gently guides, telling us what to do at the appropriate time. We have to set our mind that ‘whenever the Holy Spirit guides me, I should immediately obey’. Otherwise, we will repent that we have not obeyed the Holy Spirit. We may get frustrated with ourselves. To live our life fruitfully, according to the plan of God, we should take enough care to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. When parents leave the world, they give whatever they consider precious to their children. Our Lord Jesus before leaving the world, promised us the Holy Spirit.
So let us obey the Holy Spirit and live our lives fruitfully.
Tips to do the takeaways:
1. Let us not feel bad and mourn continuously if we have disobeyed the Holy Spirit, because we will be wasting even more time. In the autobiography of Little Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she would have mentioned this. “She would have cried for having cried”. Then she overcame that thought pattern. For any sin, let us not fret over it continuously. Think about the Apostle Paul. He had enough things to fret about regarding his past life. But once he was transformed, he looked at how he could serve the Lord. It is better to forget our past sins and focus on becoming saints of Almighty God.
2. Our great calling can be achieved only when we follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So let us be diligent in following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
When we receive personal coaching from our God, can we be empty like the fig tree?
Readings: 20 March – 3rd Sunday in Lent
‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46:10). When we think that ‘God’ is a flimsy or obsolete idea, is it not really our own being that we feel to be flimsy and insignificant? We neglect to focus our mind on the presence of God and we lose our presence to ourself and to the splendour of the world around us. We imagine that God is a ghostly intruder on our enjoyment of ourselves and our world, an in fact we turn aside from reality, lose joy, and end up clutching a mess of pottage. ’New atheists’ resort to tawdry caricature—God as an old man with a long beard sitting on a throne—or to shallow arguments, such as that God is unverifiable, like a teacup orbiting the sun, which can neither be proved nor disproved. In our distracted state it is hard to raise our minds to the living God or to open our hearts to his presence. We might even say that it is hard for God to break through to us, so much are we the victim of petty mental regimes and so completely are our hearts closed to his Spirit, the ‘fount of life, and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.’
Exodus, chapter 3, tells of one who did not turn aside from God, but who turned aside from his affairs to hear the voice of God, in a quiet place, a holy place. Moses is the greatest spiritual leader of the Hebrew Bible, and his leadership comes from this encounter with the living God. That encounter is what transforms him from a weak and ordinary man, a shepherd, into an inaugural figure in the history of salvation. Milton begins ‘Paradise Lost’ with him: ‘That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed/ In the beginning how the heavens and earth/ Rose out of chaos.’ Joyce begins ‘Finnegans Wake’ with him, linking the scene of the burning bush with two other inaugural events, the calls of St Peter and St Patrick.
Other associations cluster around the scene just now. The Speaker of the Canadian Parliament acclaimed President Zelensky on March 15 by citing the word ‘hineni’ or ‘here I am,’ perhaps thinking of its famous occurrence on the lips of Moses as he steps forward to take up the task of rescuing and leading his oppressed people from a seemingly invincible enemy who turned out to be anything but.
He heard the voice of God speaking in the depth of his mind and his heart. To his mind, God communicated his name: ‘I am who am.’ That name, variously translated, could be God’s hineni, ‘I will be what I will be’ (ehyeh asher ehyeh). In any case it points to unfathomable mystery and to the ultimate depth of being. Everything we are and have, and the entire universe, depends on the ‘one who is,’ who holds everything in being and stamps it all as his good creation. Shadows of evil, which is not being but a defect or privation of being, do not diminish the divine reality. Our lives are fragile and painful, but we can always stand in the presence of the Eternal and wait on him until he steadies our thought, clearing away all our unsatisfying ideas about him and bringing home to us his unique divine qualities, usefully spelled out by Vatican I in case we’d forgotten them: ‘unum esse Deum vivum et verum, creatorem et Dominum caeli et terrae, omnipotentem, aeternum, immensum, incomprehensibilem, intellectu ac voluntate omnique perfectione infinitum… una singularis, simplex omnino et incommutabilis substantia spiritualis.’ Missing from the list are divine goodness and divine omnipresence, perhaps the two qualities best remembered in Irish piety: ‘God is good’ and ‘Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras — God’s help is nearer than the door.’ We need our local Moses, St Patrick, to remind us of all these things.
God also reveals a second name to Moses — his name of mercy (nomen misericordiae), which is much easier to grasp than his name of being (nomen essentiae), in St Augustine’s terms. ‘The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—this is my name forever’: Our mind falls flat when we try to define God as he is in himself; but our heart is warmed when we name God in terms of those he chose he people to make himself known in human terms. The memory of Israel beings God near to us, as does the memory of the saints, and of our fellow Christians living or dead who were shown God’s gracious condescension: ‘I have heard their cry. I have come down to deliver them.’
All this old lore is still charged with terrific power, and still speaks to our minds and hearts if we but listen.
‘I just wish God would speak to me.’
‘Read your Bible.’
‘No, I mean speak to me out loud.’
‘Read your Bible out loud.’
Readings: 20 March – Third Sunday in Lent
Implicitly this Gospel passage is a denial that our circumstances, whatever they are, reflect God’s judgement of what we deserve. Imperial occupation and arbitrary cruelty by Rome was no more the will of God than the falling of a rickety building.
Not only is the ‘prosperity Gospel’ rubbished in this passage, so are all of the absurdities of the Forbes ‘rich list’ and the celebrity culture that media foist upon us.
But the status pyramid that the church became, especially after 312, is also indicted in this passage. Awarding honour to ecclesiastical and political grandees, and typically shaming the poor and the unlearned, it became just another worldly contradiction to the Gospel – effectively denying what Jesus affirms – the equal dignity of all in God’s eyes.
Repentance for the poor is the opposite of what it should be for those who think themselves superior- a realisation of that sin. To rethink self-rejection is, for the poor, to realise one’s own goodness, especially these days in putting up with an unjust elite that is ravaging the planet – and in living most lightly on the earth.
It is also to escape the pull of media-defined success and glamour, to realise that no one needs the approval of anyone else to approve of themself.