Cycle C - Year I:  

24 March 2019: Third Sunday of Lent

(Liturgical Color: Violet)

Readings:

First Reading:        Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 13:1-9

God's call to conversion!

When tragedy or natural calamity strikes, we are probably driven to attribute them to God's punishment. Sometimes, when we are unable to comprehend misfortunes we relate them to divine intervention as punishment for our sins. But were the victims more sinful than others to deserve God's wrath?

The Gospel narrative for this Sunday speaks of misfortune that befell the Galilean pilgrims and the victims of the fall of the tower of Siloam. So people asked our Lord if this was God's punishment for their sins.

Incidentally, the Gospel reading gives us information which is only found in Luke's version of the Gospel. There are no parallel passages of this in the other Gospel versions.

Now going back to the question the people asked, our Lord categorically refuses to attribute their misfortune to God, or to His sense of justice. Because God does only good; He offers us only life.

Our God is a very patient God who wants us back to His kingdom. So Jesus takes this opportunity to explain God's mercy and sense of justice. He then uses the parable of the fig tree that had not borne fruits for the past three years but was allowed still to remain for another year so that it might produce a harvest.

The metaphor for the fig tree is meant to teach us practical lessons about the time each of us is given in this life for conversion. Let us reflect on these lessons:

First lesson: The farmer wanted to cut down the fig tree because it had not borne fruits and only exhausted the soil. Those who only take and don't give something in return eventually collapse upon themselves and die. The same can be true for us when we do not bear fruit for the kingdom of God. Each us is indebted to God for our lives, but each of us has the responsibility to leave this world better than when we found it when we depart for the next life. Thus, we must produce fruits of good deeds.

Second lesson: God is always giving us another chance to conversion and change of heart. That is why each day is a gift from God. We can make use of it to advance God's kingdom, or we can use it only for our own selfish purposes. Our merciful God beckons us always to repentance because His generosity is immense.

Final lesson, which certainly is not the last: While God's generosity is immense, it is not infinite. One day He will call us for an accounting of our lives. At a certain point, our chances to repent are exhausted and each of us will have to answer for the way we live our lives. Now it is not as if God shuts us out. Rather, we are responsible for our own downfall  should we reject God's invitation to repent with contrite heart. Remember that sin is our greatest misfortune, and so we must turn away from it. And it is our choice to repent or persist in sinful ways.

Now is the time to answer Lent's urgent call for a change of heart. May each of us sense the urgency of conversion that the parable of the fig tree is teaching us. And let us put to life its lessons and work hard to bear fruits for God's kingdom, each according to our own state of life and capacity. Let us always remember that while we live in God's mercy in this life, we will live under His justice in the next.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!