February 28, 2016 – Third Sunday Of Lent – Lectionary: 30
Reading 1 – Exodus 3: 1-8A, 13-15
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire
flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”
When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,
God called out to him from the bush, AMoses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.
I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued,
“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
But the LORD said,
“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt
and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers,
so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down to rescue them
from the hands of the Egyptians
and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,
a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites
and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who am.”
Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you.”
God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.
“This is my name forever;
thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
- The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits. - The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion. - The Lord is kind and merciful.
The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel. - The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. - The Lord is kind and merciful.Reading 2 – 1 Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
that our ancestors were all under the cloud
and all passed through the sea,
and all of them were baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was the Christ.
Yet God was not pleased with most of them,
for they were struck down in the desert.
These things happened as examples for us,
so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.
Do not grumble as some of them did,
and suffered death by the destroyer.
These things happened to them as an example,
and they have been written down as a warning to us,
upon whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure
should take care not to fall.
Gospel – Luke 13: 1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”
Listen to the Scriptures: click to the link below:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/16_02_28.mp3
3rd Sunday of Lent – C
THEME: The Urgency of Repentance. During the season of Lent, the Church calls us to repentance. Compared to eternity, little time is left to reform our lives. Repentance is not simply a matter of avoiding sin. True repentance must involve doing good, letting our faith “bear fruit” in a harvest of charitable deeds. God who is ever merciful calls sinners to repentance. He does not believe our final answer to his invitation will be “no.” The events of salvation history demonstrate the urgent need to make ourselves ready for the future right now. Repentance is not something we can afford to put off any longer, for the kingdom of God is already at hand. Lent is the season for repentance; now is the time to reform our lives.
“Fragile – Handle with Care!” Packages in the mail sometimes bear this label, and so does our relationship with God. We damage it by sin. Handled too roughly, it can be broken beyond repair. Our life in grace is indeed a perishable good which needs to be insured. Repentance is the only way to assure a safe delivery at our final destination, heaven.
Point 1: Repentance means avoiding evil. We seldom sit down and plan to commit a sin. More often we just don’t look far enough ahead to see where our actions are leading us. “Another drink won’t make that much difference in the way I feel.” “I am tired so it won’t matter if this once I skip praying before I sleep.” “It won’t matter if I stop by her house while her husband isn’t home.” Or we rationalize our sinful actions. “Everyone else curses when they get angry.” I can look at pornographic magazine, but I’d never buy one much less bring it home.” There is no shortcut to avoiding sin. It takes a change in attitude, a firm resolution, prayer, sacrifice, and above all, perseverance.
Point 2: Repentance means doing good. Avoiding evil is not enough. Sinful habits have to be replaced with virtuous ones. Instead of talking about a person behind his or her back, say something good about him or her. Make a point of looking for the good in people you don’t like, instead of pointing out their faults. True charity begins at home. Spend a little more time sharing yourself with the people you live with instead of just being physically present. Show you care by helping and doing things without having to be asked or told. Seek out those who are old and lonely in our neighborhood – do something for them. Only in such concrete, positive ways can you “bear fruit.” Faith which does not prove itself in a harvest of good deeds is quite dead and useless.
Point 3: Repentance means a change of heart. Few of us keep our New Year’s resolutions for a full year. Any real change for the better in our lives requires more than good intentions. Half-hearted attempts are soon abandoned. Lasting improvements depends on a change of attitude in the depths of the person’s heart. True repentance requires no less and is best assured by the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.
Conclusion: The fig tree in the gospel came to an unproductive end because it failed to fulfill the purpose for which it was created. God created each of us to know, love, and serve him, but sin gets in the way. Unless we seek to be reconciled with each other, we will never be reconciled with God. Unless we seek to be perfect like our heavenly Father, we will never see him face-to-face as Moses did. Unless we have a change of heart and begin to reform our lives today, we too shall just be cluttering up the ground and come to just as unproductive an end.
QUESTIONS THAT MAY LEAD TO OTHER THOUGHTS, REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, WRITTEN.
- If Christ were to come again today, would you really be ready to enter His kingdom? If you knew that He was coming at the end of this Lenten season what about yourself would want to be sure you change before He comes?
- Will you let this Lenten season go by as many others may have with only a token effort instead of a true change of heart? If no, what will you do or what are you doing to make it different?
- The sacrament of Penance brings out the meaning of true repentance clearly. When was the last time you went to confession or sought the help and understanding of a priest or spiritual guide to evaluate and improve your life?
- If someone was to ask you are you among those who have taken out of life more than you have put in it or are you among those who put more in life than they take out – what would you say? If you have put something into life – describe what you have done?
The parable of the fig tree, a parable at one and the same time lit by grace and close packed with warnings.
- The fig-tree occupied a specially favoured position. It was not unusual to see fig-trees, thorn-trees and apple-trees in vineyards. The soil was so shallow and poor that trees were grown wherever there was soil to grow them; but the fig-tree had a more than average chance; and it had not proved worthy of it. Repeatedly, directly and by implication, Jesus reminded men that they would be judged according to the opportunities they had. E. M. Joad once said, “We have the powers of gods and we use them like irresponsible schoolboys.” Never was a generation entrusted with so much as ours and, therefore, never was a generation so answerable to God.
- The parable teaches that uselessness invites disaster. It has been claimed that the whole process of evolution in this world is to produce useful things, and that what is useful will go on from strength to strength, while what is useless will be eliminated. The most searching question we can be asked is, “Of what use were you in this world?”
- Further, the parable teaches that nothing which only takes out can survive. The fig-tree was drawing strength and sustenance from the soil; and in return was producing nothing. That was precisely its sin. In the last analysis, there are two kinds of people in this world–those who take out more than they put in, and those who put in more than they take out.
In one sense we are all in debt to life. We came into it at the peril of someone else’s life; and we would never have survived without the care of those who loved us. We have inherited a Christian civilization and a freedom which we did not create. There is laid on us the duty of handing things on better than we found them.
“Die when I may,” said Abraham Lincoln, “I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower wherever I thought a flower would grow.” Once a student was being shown bacteria under the microscope. He could actually see one generation of these microscopic living things being born and dying and another being born to take its place. He saw, as he had never seen before, how one generation succeeds another. “After what I have seen,” he said, “I pledge myself never to be a weak link.”
If we take that pledge we will fulfil the obligation of putting into life at least as much as we take out.
- The parable tells us of the gospel of the second chance. A fig-tree normally takes three years to reach maturity. If it is not fruiting by that time it is not likely to fruit at all. But this fig-tree was given another chance.
It is always Jesus’ way to give a man chance after chance. Peter and Mark and Paul would all gladly have witnessed to that. God is infinitely kind to the man who falls and rises again.
- But the parable also makes it quite clear that there is a final chance. If we refuse chance after chance, if God’s appeal and challenge come again and again in vain, the day finally comes, not when God has shut us out, but when we by deliberate choice have shut ourselves out. God save us from that!
Reading I: Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Responsorial Psalm: 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
Reading II: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
Third Sunday of Lent – 28th February 2016 – Prayer of the faithful
For the Church: that we may live in the current moment and produce the fruits of justice, compassion and mercy, let us pray to the Lord.
For the grace to recognize everything as gift: that in knowing God as the source of all existence, we may see each day and each breath as a loving gift from God, let us pray to the Lord.
For a spirit of conversion: that we may honestly evaluate our lives, desire reform and seek reconciliation during this Lenten season, let us pray to the Lord.
For the gift of awe: that we reverence the holy grounds on which we stand, this good earth, the bonds of friendship, and our community of faith, let us pray to the Lord.
For openness to the mysterious ways in which God is revealed to us: that we may never limit God in our lives but be open to the surprising ways God is with us, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who are experiencing affliction whether physical, emotional, or spiritual: that God will show forth saving love and lead them to freedom, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who are enslaved, particularly young people in prostitution: that God will free them and lead them to safety, let us pray to the Lord.
For the areas of our lives that do not produce fruit: that God will prune us, nurture us and continue to give us opportunities to bring forth a harvest of faith, hope, and love, let us pray to the Lord.
For social workers and counselors: that God will inspire them in offering new insights and hope as they work with those wounded and lack freedom, let us pray to the Lord.
For healing for all who suffer from or lost loved ones in disasters or through terrorism: that God will wipe away their tears and comfort their aching spirits, let us pray to the Lord.
For greater respect for the gift of life: that we may recognize God’s gift in all human life and
reverence it through our deeds, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who serve in public life: that they will recognize the needs of the powerless and marginalized and strive to bring justice and relief to all, let us pray to the Lord.
For the gift of peace: that God will help all people to recognize the value and dignity of life and to strive to find non-violent ways to settle conflicts, let us pray to the Lord.