3RD SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR C

Exodus 3:1-8.13-15
Psalm 102
1 Corinthians 10:1-6.10-12
Luke 13:1-9

MY NAME IS I AM

As we continue our Lenten observances, the journey may become tiresome, unbearable and too long. It may happen that we see no good coming out of our efforts. But let us not despair. For our God is a living and faithful God. He is close to us and knows everything. This is what he reveals to Moses in the burning bush. We do not serve a nameless God. His name is: “I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM”. He is always present.  He has resolved to come down and free his people from slavery. This means that our God can be approached personally. He is real. He exists. And he does not abandon us to our fate.

For St Paul in the second reading, God guided the Israelites through the desert and provided for their needs. Despite all that some of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert. Their story is told us as a warning so that we may not behave like them.

In the gospel, people “gossip” about the tragic disaster that befell the Galileans whom Pilate killed and the eighteen people who perished under the tower at Siloam. Why such misfortunes? For Jesus, this question is not important. There is a disaster that is more deadly than natural calamities and that hovers over all of us; and that is sin. Thus, we must repent from our sins and come to God. For God is patient. He does not take pleasure in the death of the sinner, but he may repent and live.

He is not in a hurry to cut the unproductive tree down. He gives it another chance, another opportunity for it to produce fruits. That tree is you, it is me. God is giving us another chance, another time to change and be saved. We must leave behind bad behaviors, bitterness, complaining, unforgiveness, etc. This time is today. Do not wait, do not postpone it. For today is the time of salvation; today is the time for deliverance. 

Amen