Scripture Note for the Third Sunday of Lent
The First Reading tells how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and revealed his name as Yahweh (‘I am the Existing One’). God has heard the cries of his oppressed people, and sends Moses to liberate them. It is a turning point in the Old Testament. It leads to the Exodus and beyond.
In the Gospel we see how Jesus rejected the popular belief that accidents which befall people are inflicted by God as punishment for sin. Still, sin calls for repentance. And Jesus tells the Jews that they will lose the promises unless they repent. The barren fig tree symbolises the barren state of Israel. But God is patient. There is still time to repent, though that time is getting short.
The role of Moses prefigures the role of Jesus. Through Moses God saved his people, Israel, from slavery in Egypt. We are the new people of God, saved through the waters of baptism from the slavery of sin, and now en route under the leadership of Jesus to the promised land of eternal life. We too are fed with food ‘from heaven’, namely, the Eucharist.
In the Letter to the Romans Paul says that in spite of all God had done for them, most of the Israelites were not pleasing to God. Christians must not think that just because they have received the sacraments they are automatically saved.
Reflection
Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles.
Lord, fill our eyes with seeing, and our minds with knowing.
Let there be moments when the radiance of your presence
illuminates the darkness in which we walk.
Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed.
And we, clay touched by your hand,
will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder,
‘How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it.’
(Anon)
