Year C

3RD SUNDAY
OF LENT

► Text of Sunday Reflection

“We have a compassionate God”
by Fr Richard Ebejer SDB

Every tragedy reminds us that we live in a world in which we are not in control. In this Sunday’s Gospel, mention is made of eighteen people who were killed when a tower collapsed on them. Jesus also makes mention of a group of men from Galilee who were killed by Pontius Pilate. When tragedies like these strike, we look for an explanation, an answer, some way to try and make sense of the event.

We tend to try and find some reason for another person’s suffering – maybe it is due to their lifestyle, their sins, mistakes or choices; – we can feel a bit safer and more in control by knowing that we are not like that. That we are different. We reassure ourselves with the knowledge that we have not made the same mistakes. We have not committed those same sins. And we tend to put the blame onto the victims themselves, as somehow they had been the cause of what had happened to them. This becomes nothing but self-righteous attitude, thinking that we are better than others. Self-righteousness is a sin much more common than we think, which I myself maybe committing as I share this reflection. We forget that the dividing line between good and evil passes not somewhere out there, but right through our own very hearts.

But what is worse is when we turn victims into the scapegoats, shifting on to them any responsibility for some difficult situation and blaming them as being the cause of our own sufferings and difficulties. We come to think that if we were to drive them away, if we were to uproot them, then we would have found a solution to our own problems. There is nothing further from the truth, and we have seen this happening in history again and again, right up to our very times.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the fig-tree, which a man wanted to cut down and uproot because it had failed to bear any fruit. But the gardener advices otherwise, and says that if it is given the right conditions and care, than it might be able to give the desired fruit.

The words of Jesus are the words of a compassionate and caring gardener who seeks to nourish life, who is willing to get down on his hands and knees, to dig around in the dirt of our life, to water, even spread a little manure, and then trust that fruit will grow. This gardener sees possibilities for life that we often cannot see in our own or each other people’s lives.

We have a compassionate God who, as we see in the first reading, appears to Moses in the burning bush. We hear him say: I have heard my people cry and I have come down to redeem my people. He is a God who does not condemn or judge, but is willing to give us a second chance as God calls us to repentance.

► Readings, Reflections & Prayers

Scripture readings: Association for Catholic Priests
– www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie
Reflections and Prayers by Fr Jack Finnegan SDB

1st Reading – Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15

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.

Reflection

There is profound wisdom in the name God shared with Moses: I-am-who-am, or, The-One-who-causes-to-be-what-comes-into-existence. God is the origin of all, a loving bearer and sharer of life. That is why ours is God of real people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We do not love an abstraction, impersonal, cold. We meet the Glorious One revealed in human history and in the lives of real men and women. Our God is the Dazzling Splendour of Light calling Moses from a burning bush. Ours is a God who talks to us, who persuades Moses to lead the people out of slavery, offering a way to life-changing freedom. Ours is a God who leads people through a wilderness, giving water from a rock, opening the way to a Promised Land. God is the salt of wisdom hidden in our souls, the Splendour and Beauty shining through every facet of our lives. God is Holiness dressed in cosmic glory. Ours is a God who sends Jesus to show us the way to life and graces us in the power of the Spirit. Are we ready to follow the Sacred Way and celebrate the freedom of God’s people even in these wretched times?

Prayer

LORD, Adonai, God of my ancestors, Lord of the Burning Bush, Salt in my experience, your name brings me boundless joy. You are the origin and bearer of cosmic life! Glory and everlasting praise to you! You are lavish in the abundance of your love! You speak to us in the realities of life, inviting us to be open-handed, hearts overflowing with milk and honey for those in need. You fill us with grace upon grace, clothing us with your delightful compassion. You are the Splendour and Beauty in every facet of our lives. You are Holiness dressed in cosmic brilliance on fire with glowing stars, freedom in your hands! Help me say here I am, when you call me! Help me to stand before you on holy ground! Help me work with you for the liberation of the world from every form of oppression and slavery, especially when war has returned to Europe. Help me to be ready and true now and always, to the praise and glory of your Radiant Presence and your Holy Name. Now and forever. Amen and Amen.

Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11

Reflection

Forgiven, healed, redeemed! This is our song today. Our God is kind, full of grace and mercy! No wonder we want to sing the song of a soul forgiven and set free! No wonder we want to sing one of the great praising psalms! We rejoice in the touch of God’s amazing grace and exult in the praise of the repentant sinner. We delight in the beauty of praise! We rejoice to be God’s people. That is why we sing out Bless the Lord my soul, and all that is within me bless God’s Holy Name! That is why we acclaim God’s wonderful gifts of pardon and peace, of kindness and compassion. God showers us with gifts of liberation and utter benevolence. No wonder we want to cry out: Bless the Lord! Praise God’s Holy Name! We remember that praise and mercy go hand in hand even in times of war!

Prayer

LORD, Adonai, you are compassion and love! Let me sing the song of a soul set free! How wonderful you are! How kind and merciful! You flood me with your amazing grace! You invite me to dance for joy among your people! You pardon my faults! You lift me up from my failings! You hide me in the shadow of your wings as the storms of destruction pass by! You are Bearer of Life, Bringer of Justice, Forgiver of Guilt, Giver of Freedom, and Living Spring of abundant kindness! Your radiant glory fills me with awe! My soul and my spirit praise your Holy Name! May my songs of love and compassion dance before you! Now and forever. Amen and Amen.

2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

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.

Reflection

Paul goes back to the Exodus story because of the Corinthians flirtation with idolatry. That is why he suggests that the sacraments echo the exodus story. The sacraments are like staging posts in a life-long journey with Christ to wholeness in divine glory. Through the sacraments we, too, are led through the sea and follow a fire and a cloud in a wilderness. We, too, are blessed; yet how often we honour idols of our own making. We still have a way to go, choices to make every day with Christ our Rock to help us on the way. We have our spiritual food and drink and the touch of God’s Wisdom in our hearts. Lent is a good time to remember these things, to recall that conversion is an ongoing process, that transformation is a challenge right to the end. That is why we remind ourselves today to be awake and alert, attentive to pitfalls and idols along the way. We remember our baptismal commitments and the challenge they imply to respect life to the full even in dark days.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, renew in me the grace of baptism! Touch me again with the glory of Eucharist! You are the Rock of my life. You are the Ground of my being! You are my spiritual food and drink! You are the Foundation Stone of my destiny! You are the Hidden Stone where my true name waits. Liberate me from the allure of evil things! Touch me with the fire of your love! Keep me safe from the easy enticements that cross my path and the idols I have created! Open my heart to your love today and inspire me to sing of your integrity and peace. Remind me that ways of reconciliation and peace are ever open before me! Grace me to embrace them. Now and forever. Amen and Amen.

Gospel Reading: Luke 13:1-9

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.’”

Reflection

To question a wise man is the beginning of wisdom, says a German proverb. As Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem, he met four questions on the way. We meet the first in today’s gospel, a question about justice. The others raise issues about healing on the Sabbath, salvation, and danger. The implications for us in a time of war are not far to seek. Jesus sets what he has to say in the context of two disasters, one political caused by a tyrant, the other a construction tragedy caused by human error; the kinds of things we hear about all the time. The gospel asks us to keep two things in mind. First, we are not in control of our lives. Disasters happen. Our ego-based illusions of control and security are the sour fruit of the false narcissistic self. Second, a fig tree planted in a vineyard is in a very special place, a place of favour; no one ate the fruit of a newly planted tree for three years and in the fourth, the fruit was the Lord’s. The man was waiting seven years, a powerful image of God’s patience with us! Like the fig tree, in Lent we need to face the consequences of self-centred lives. We need to face what diminishes integrity in others and ourselves. What sort of fig tree am I? Do I know that repentance is not a feeling? It is a reorientation of life; and therein lies the challenge of Lent.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I know that there are many aspects of life where I have no control. I know that disasters happen. I know my need for repentance. May I be a healthy fig tree fruitful for you and the world around me! Let me produce the fruit of your grace in abundance! Be the Gardener of my soul! Prune me in season and out of season! Dig the soil about the roots of my life! Enrich my spirit with your love! Water me with your Spirit! Help me say yes to renewal and change of direction. Nourish me with the glory of your name! Liberate me from everything false holding close to your saving truth in these healing days of Lent. Help me understand that the most powerful force on earth is the human soul on fire with your love! May I live a transformed life! Now and forever. Amen and Amen.

Lord of the Burning Bush, Gardener of souls, Living Spring,
Bright holiness robed in cosmic brilliance, afire with glowing stars,
Bearer of Life, Forgiver of Guilt, Bringer of Justice and Amazing Freedom,
Pillar of fire in dark wildernesses, may we sing and dance jubilantly with Miriam!

► Lectio Divina

A sudden disaster, an unexpected death or unjust killings, are likely to arouse in any of us a sense of unease and some difficult questions. Believers feel more challenged than others by the sad and obscure reality which is the existence of evil, because we believe that nothing happens by chance, that everything is the result and the sign of God’s goodness. It is natural then that, when faced with evil, we look to God who alone can give us a “good” answer, a reason that will ease our sorrow or, at least, enlighten us in our confusion. The existence of evil, which is so obvious in our daily lives, causes greater problems to those of us who believe, than to those who have stopped believing because of it.

Read: understand what the text is saying, focussing on how it says it

After Jesus had exhorted the people to try to read the signs of the times and of all that was happening to them, and to take decisions accordingly (Lk 12, 45-48), he was asked to give an explanation of a recent disaster that had caused much sorrow and misunderstanding. The violent death of some of their countrymen, just as they were offering sacrifice to honour God, was particularly painful for believers.  Where was God when they were worshipping him? The episode was extremely painful, especially since it had been ordered by an authority that they considered illegitimate (Lk 13, 1-3). Jesus did not give an immediate response but he added to the problem by referring to another fact that was well known to his listeners (Lk 13, 4-5). The accidental death of some people who were crushed when a tower collapsed on them, was equally incomprehensible, and in this case, they could not put the blame on the wickedness of a cruel despot. For believers, the death of innocent people, whether the result of violence or of an accident, always raises questions about God and his goodness.

In his reply, Jesus interprets what has happened prophetically. When evil occurs, it does not mean that the victims are evil. Death, whether accidental or deliberate, does not come only to sinners. The victims were not greater sinners than those who survived. When disasters occur, they serve as a serious warning to those who survive and are still alive. The evil that others suffer when disasters occur, should lead to the conversion of those who witness the disaster and are spared.  Anyone who is not converted on witnessing evil, will die under its power. The difficulties of others affect us too, and should influence the way we live our lives. Being spared when disaster strikes does not mean that we are better than those who die, but it should make us better people.

To give more force to his call to conversion, Jesus adds the parable of the barren fig tree (Lk 13, 6-9).  The owner is annoyed because it does not produce fruit and decides to uproot it, but yields to the pleading of the vinedresser who promises to give it special attention, and agrees to give him a year of grace. The fig tree is given a last chance. As long as there is life in it, the owner has hope that it will bear fruit.  The hope of our loving God is that those who are not yet good will be converted, and so he is patient with the wicked. However – and we should not forget it – the time granted is already fixed. The owner will not wait another three years. He concedes only one.

Meditate: apply what the text says to life

Jesus makes use of two recent tragic events and a parable as the basis for his call to conversion (Lk 12, 35-59). Unexpected death, whether it comes as a result of wilful violence at the foot of the altar, or as an unfortunate consequence of the collapse of a tower, poses a situation that requires explanation. Jesus warns those who are still alive that they should not ask questions about the fate of those who have died. They should be concerned, instead, about their own future. The dead may or may not have been sinners, but only the living have the possibility of avoiding the real death which lasts forever. The fact that they still have time does not free them from their obligations, but adds to their responsibilities. Just because their hour has not yet come, does not mean that it will not come.  The fact that their judgment has been delayed adds to their responsibility, and makes their resistance to conversion more culpable. Instead of worrying about what cannot change, the Christian should choose to change his own life, and seek to live a better life, because this is the only thing that can ensure that he will escape perdition.  Only by living as God wants him to live, can the believer be free of fear. God is no longer feared by those who accept his will.

One day, some people went to Jesus with this very question in their minds. They were greatly disturbed by two sad events that had happened recently. The mass assassination of believers during a religious celebration was proof of the cruelty of the political regime which they had to put up with against their will. The unforeseen collapse of a wall was, if anything, even harder to explain. It made death seem the result of pure chance. In both cases, they found it hard to see where God and his providence could be found.

Where the pitiful people saw only a grave punishment, Jesus saw a warning from God and a last call to conversion. The Jews were accustomed to think that, as the saying goes, you get what is coming to you. Evil that comes, even unexpectedly, is never completely gratuitous. There is always a reason.  They believed that the victims of evil deserved it – they must have done something wrong. God would never punish the just.  Seemingly good people who suffer only appear good – there must be some sin in their lives, whether they are aware of it or not.  To this way of thinking, evil always has a logical explanation. There is always a reason. The evil that comes is ‘reasonable’ in a way, because it is the result of previous bad behaviour.  Jesus, who was to suffer an unjust death, could not accept an explanation of that kind. Those who are spared are not better, he taught, than those who suffer.  The evil may well survive while the just perish. Is this not our own experience?

The fact of evil, inevitable and hurtful as it may be, is a call to conversion. The experience of suffering is an invitation to turn to God, who alone can free us definitively from evil. Those who suffer most are not the most guilty. Unmerited suffering, whatever its cause, makes us worry about our safety, reminds us of our limits and, in spite of everything, directs us towards God. Anyone who is still liable to suffer is not yet saved. Anyone who can still succumb to evil is not yet completely good. The evil we do and the evil we suffer destabilize our lives and makes us insecure. It increases in us the awareness of our weakness and our insignificance.

We should not be surprised then that we believers often feel as troubled as the people of Jesus’ time in the face of evil, which is so evident and so pervasive. We cannot escape it. It weakens us and threatens to destroy all the good we have been able to do in the course of our lives. We fail to realize that misfortune and disaster can be a warning from God, a severe call to be taken into serious consideration, a painful notice that should waken us from our indifference and call us back to God.

The evil that we experience when we ignore God makes us appreciate more the good things we have received from him, and pay attention to the risks we run through our ingratitude and neglect. The experience of evil in any form can be God’s way of reminding us that he is the Supreme Good who alone can fully satisfy us. He is the One who meets all our hopes and expectations, because he is the only good who remains forever.

Jesus told the parable of the barren fig tree to teach his troubled listeners that the experience of evil, in our own lives or in the lives of others, is a call to conversion.  Jesus does not answer his own questions directly, but rather tells his listeners what they must do. He had not come to solve the problems they brought to him, but to raise some new questions. He lets his listeners continue to worry over their problem, but warns them that they have not yet faced up to the crucial question.

His listeners had witnessed evil, but in this case, it was not an evil they had experienced in their own lives. Their questions were well-intentioned, but a bit academic. They came not from their own grief but from their reflections on the grief of others. Jesus responds by saying that anyone who thinks he is safe from evil is the very one who is at risk, and exposed to unforeseen evil and to death, in the same way as were those who had died. But the living have one more chance. This is the warning behind the analogy of the fig tree.  Like the owner of the fig tree, we may have put our hope in God and believed that one day we would bear fruit. Often we have made promises, without thinking that one day he would come to ask of us what we had promised. Jesus reminds us that promises are not enough, whether we promise a little or a lot. It is not enough to live on God’s gifts. We have to give them back to him. Our future with God does not depend on our good desires, but on the good works we do. It would, therefore, be a mistake to hold that, just because nothing too serious has happened to us up to now, or because we have escaped relatively unharmed from the evil we have suffered, that we will be safe when it comes to the day of the Lord’s judgment.

Like the barren fig tree we have been given a bit more time, a last chance. It would be wrong to spend our time worrying about the harm that might befall us, while neglecting to do the good that God expects of us. The evil we need to worry about is the good we fail to do to others.

Blessed are we if we listen today to the voice of the Lord! We need to be aware of the evil that is in the world and in our hearts. There is no need to go far to look for it. Why complain about how evil the world is, and how wicked other people are, when we could well find in ourselves the same evil that we attribute to others? We need to become more aware of God and his goodness, and the good things we have received from him, and remember that one day, when God has conquered all our evil, we will be asked to give an account of the evil we have done and the good we have failed to do.

If the presence of evil in our world – a presence which is so clearly evident and so visible in our daily lives – does not bring us to seek God, our supreme good, and lead us to live better lives, then our suffering will have been of no good to us. Maybe we think we have suffered unjustly. Maybe we complain that God does not take good enough care of us. The evil that exists around us should make us become better people. Jesus warns us that, while there is evil around us, we cannot go on doing evil, if we do not want to be lost and to lose God forever.