Third Sunday of Lent / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The Book of Exodus, the source of the first reading for Mass this weekend, recalls the encounter between God and Moses at the burning bush. Moses is reported as tending his father-in-law’s flock. The bush, although on fire, did not burn.
Then God spoke, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The message was simple. God is always with his people and aware of their plight. He was always merciful and continues to be, sending leaders such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring hope, relief and guidance.
Moses in his turn was God’s instrument of this relief, sent to lead the people out of Egypt.
Unable to look upon God’s face, knowing his own limitations, Moses removed his sandals to show respect even for the ground upon which he met God.
Finally, God revealed the divine name to Moses, a supreme revelation. In Hebrew tradition, names contained the very being of the person. To know a person’s name was to touch the person’s identity. Imparting the divine name reveals the tightness of the bond, and depth of God, in God’s relationship with people.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians provides the second reading. Corinth’s Christian community challenged Paul. Corinth was an utter pit of immorality. Christians were vulnerable before many temptations.
Paul insisted that Christians had to follow the Gospels despite the difficulties. He warned the Corinthians, encouraged them, scolded them, implored them, taught them and sought to inspire them.
He referred to the history of God’s people, giving it as proof that, without God’s guidance, without the nourishment provided by God, people die. Earthly resources could never protect or sustain them. Paul insists that God alone is the source of true life.
St. Luke’s Gospel furnishes the last reading, giving one of the rare glimpses of Pontius Pilate in the Gospels outside the passion narratives themselves. It hardly is complimentary to him. Pilate, who so casually sentenced Jesus to an agonizing death, was ruthless and unmerciful in many cases. He also had no regard for the God of Israel or for the religion of the people who worshipped the God of Israel.
(An ancient tradition is that he was recalled to Rome because of his brutality, a brutality too vicious even by the heartless standards of Roman imperial governance.)
Jesus said that the victims of Pilate’s cruelty did not deserve what they received. Jesus referred to an accidental disaster, when 18 people were killed by a falling tower in Siloam. He noted that they, too, were innocent. The Lord made this basic point. All those to whom Jesus referred in the end died, innocent or not. None could control evil decisions by evil people, nor the mishaps of nature or invented things.
Manner of death, however, is unimportant. All people die.
Jesus tells the people to reform, giving the parable of the barren fig tree. The owner wants to uproot the tree, but his vinedresser pleads for enough time to nourish the tree in the hope that it will bear fruit. In the end, though, the tree must bear fruit.
Reflection
We continue to move through Lent. The Church in these readings is frank, telling us that abandoning God reaps a whirlwind of calamity, drawing into its wake even the innocent. Remember the victims of Pilate’s disregard for his subjects.
All humans will die under some circumstances. Physicians call death “the inevitable.” Even so, it doesn’t necessarily mean eternal death. The Church provides Lent to help us to live with God, now and in the next life. If we stumble, God forgives and is ready to strengthen us.
Remember the fig tree. God is patient, but one day will be everyone’s last on Earth. What happens next is up to us. †