THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

  1. It is midway during Lent, it is time to stop and take stock of what we have done so far and where we are heading during Lent. We are physically helped because it coincides with March break, the schools are closed and we stop and take a breather. As we Stop, Look and Listen, we do not have to make much of an effort. The three readings flash pictures before us like a Slide Show. Each of them is an invitation and a challenge to a total acceptance of the Love and Providence of a God who cares. We have pictures of a

burning bush
parting of the Sea
manna in the desert
water from a rock.
People who are praying & are killed
a tower falling and 18 people dying
a non productive fig tree and a gardener who tends it

|If you did not see these pictures, then either our minds were wandering or the lector did not prepare the proclamation of the Word.



2. The primary purpose of Lent is to accompany our RCIA candidates who are making the final preparation to be received into the church at the Easter Vigil. You can almost hear the words: "Make sure your seat belts are fastened, your chairs and tables are in the upright and lock position, your handbags are in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you, as we prepare for take off"
Even if we do not have RCIA candidates, we are called to see and accept God's providence for us as each of us makes our own pilgrimage to the Kingdom of God.
a. Like the Israelites in the exodus, we are introduced and invited to pass from the uncomfortable zone of sin & slavery into the light of freedom of God's children.
b. Like the Israelites, who were quenched by water from the Rock, we are introduced into the church, through the waters of Baptism.
c. Like the Israelites who were nourished by manna in the desert,  We are nourished by the Bread at the Eucharistic Table.

3. However, Paul reminds his Corinthian Christians not to be presumptions. There was a strong Gnostic tendency among these Christians. They knew they were baptised, they knew they were nourished , they knew the Word of God - and hence they thought they were superior and they could take risks and they could sail close to the Wind... some dangerously so. And because they KNEW the Word, they thought they would not fall into danger.
Paul reminds them about the Israelites after the Exodus:
in spite of the Pillar of Fire by night, and Pillar of Cloud by day,
in spite of being fed spiritual food: manna in the desert
in spite of drinking spiritual drink: water from the rock.
They still fell away from God and the built an Idol, a calf made of God.

3a       The warning of Paul is particularly relevant to us in the first world countries. We think we have all the answers, we are the Good people of the world, the rest are terrorists, we are the police and peace keepers of the World - we can become pretty over confident, presumptions, arrogant , and think all this is my right. Not true. Hence the prayer of the Our Father is so relevant to us:
"Lead us not into temptation / or / do not put us to the test. But deliver us from evil" Lest we too stumble and fall - like the Israelites in the Desert and the Corinthians in Paul's time.

4. What should we do? Perhaps a little bit of the awe and reverence of Moses before the burning bush. We need to take off our shoes and humble ourselves knowing that we are on Holy Ground, knowing that we are in God's presence. As we look at the Slide Show of God's continual caring, we can have the perseverance of Moses who sought to know the Name of God. Now Moses knew the names given to God.

a. El Shaddai the God of the mountains describing the POWER of God
b. El Elyon the God everlasting: Melchizedek's description of ETERNITY of God
c. El Olam the God who must be praised - describing the ROYALTY of God

4a       But now Moses asks for something more. It is not to control God, but rather asking the pin number or the password of God, so that as Moses goes forth in God's name he might have the security, the power of God behind his demands and actions. And God accedes to Moses: Tell them, I am who I am. We can understand the words, but what do they signify. Scholars tell us that it means a God who holds everything in existence. Not merely, God the creator, but more like Isaiah a prophet who was still to be born would describe: a God who carved us in the palm of his hand.

Our response to this would not be the Psalm 103 of today, but more in the spirit of Psalm 8. "When I look at the heavens the works of your hands, the moon and the stars which you have made, what are we mortals that you keep us in mind, mortals that you care for us."

5. When God made us, God made us good. There is no evil. As marriage Encounter would say: "God does not make junk." and yet we notice evil around. Evil is nothing, it is a negation, it is an absence of Good.

There is physical evil: like blindness, and deafness, being lame. God has given us the talent through Medical intelligence to restore these physical evils. As we see the physical evil in the Fig Tree that does not produce. And the Gardener is willing to tend and make it fruitful.
But there is also Moral Evil - we have been made in God's image and likeness.  And so we have a choice. Today our invitation is to Stop, Look, Listen - and accept God's providence and care. But Evil is there:

I do not choose the good, but choose Evil
I reject what is good
I lie about existence (I am made in God's image and likeness)
I reject the call to accept God's love and life.
I reject the personal relationship to God.
And that is Hell.
We have all had a taste of Hell - when a spouse, a friend, a lover has rejected us. We use those so often heard words: "what's the use of living."

6. And yet we do not have to be a part of that. The choice is ours. As again we hear in Marriage Encounter: Love is not a feeling, Love is decision. No matter how tired, exhausted, low and depressed I might feel, I can take a decision to love. We see that in the love a mother and father has for their child, especially the new born. We can take a decision to accept God's gift of love, God's invitation to be personal and up front with God. God's love that is unselfish, always seeking our Good.

So at this point in Lent, as we sit back, look and listen - enjoy the Slide Show of God's abundance Goodness to us: - gently we can recite "When I look at the heavens the works of your hands - I realize Lord you are more precious than silver, Lord you are more costly than gold, Lord you are more wonderful than diamonds and nothing in this world can compare with You."