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Breaking Open the Word
March 7
Third Sunday in Lent

Readings:
Exodus 3:1-8; 13-15
Psalm 103:1-11
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9

Overview: In this week’s first reading God tells Moses to remove his sandals because the place where he is standing is “holy ground.” This is significant, for we are reminded of Creation when God “blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” That word - “holy” (Hebrew: qodesh) - doesn’t appear again until God reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush. The ground is holy because God is present. Having heard the cries of his people groaning under bondage God “has come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians.” Confronting God’s infinite holiness, man (in the person of Moses) is brought face to face with the reality of his own sinfulness. At the same time, God’s infinite mercy and love brings hope to the oppressed. Jesus Christ came to earth to free fallen man from the slavery of sin just as God had come down to deliver Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. In our second reading, St. Paul warns the Corinthians about complacency. He reminds them of how God brought Israel out of Egypt, protected them with a ‘cloud’ (a sign of God’s presence) and gave them spiritual food and drink. Still, after all that “they were struck down in the desert” because they “desired evil things.” In this week’s gospel Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree that bore no fruit. The fig tree and vineyard are common metaphors for Israel in the Old Testament and (according to some of the Church Fathers) to the Temple itself. By the time of Christ, the Temple had become corrupt. The sacrificial rites no longer produced the ‘fruit’ of holiness that God desired. Jesus labored to bring his people back to God and to their divine calling as the holy people of God (Leviticus 19:2). “For three years” (an allusion to Christ’s three years of ministry) the fig tree failed to bear fruit just as his own people failed to ‘bear fruits that befits repentance’ (Luke 3:8).

Key verse: “I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them.” (Ex. 3:7-8)

“Catechism of the Catholic Church:” “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross.” [no. 2013]

Pope Benedict XVI: “What did Jesus actually bring if not world peace universal prosperity and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham, then to Moses and the Prophets.” (Jesus of Nazareth).

Life application: The central idea in this week’s readings is the need for conversion, without which life in Christ is impossible. We must not become complacent as the Corinthians did. The Lord has come down to save us from our sins so that we will bear fruit befitting the holy people of God.