Let’s take a moment to reflect: we can start thinking about this third week in Lent by beginning to discern traces of meaning in the Scripture Readings suggested for the third Sunday.
In the first reading from the Book of Exodus, we are placed within a situation of violence, the enforced slavery of one people by another. Into the midst of this situation, unexpectedly, God comes to Moses, a tender of sheep, and speaks to him ‘I am well aware of your people’s sufferings. I mean to deliver them.’
This encounter with God transforms Moses into one of the most powerful figures of history, the one who is to stand up to the might of the great Egyptian Empire and lead his people out of slavery into the promised land. God enters human history and inspires this human being to take on responsibility and so to transform a situation of hatred and violence into a situation where milk and honey flow.
In Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 13: 1-9, the gospel which follows the first Reading, we find Jesus again calling us to repentance. Jesus addresses this call not just to a few but also to everyone, in fact, without exception.
This is the main thrust of the parable of the barren fig tree. The fig tree is found wanting, not because it produces poisonous figs, but because it failed to produce any figs at all. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves the question: What have I failed to do? The call to repentance is not merely a call to turn away from evil, but a call to produce the fruits of good living, to make our world a better place in which to live.
Bernie Devine SP
Mildmay chaplain
Let us pray:
Lord, as we enter this third week of Lent,
we reflect on the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Just as You count the stars and know each by name,
help us to make all of Your children known, loved, and served through our daily actions.
Amen
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