The Third Sunday of Lent: Tragedy & Conversion

Click Here for the Sunday Mass Readings - 3rd Sunday of Lent (Year C):

"Those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?  By no means!  But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"

The readings for this Third Sunday of Lent contrast the enduring generosity of God's goodness to the prevailing evil and hardness of heart found in man.  We also see that God does not remain indifferent to our hardness of heart.  He does not stop calling us to Himself simply because we resist Him.  We may resist God, resist change and conversion, but He attempts to break down the walls we have set up against Him. In other words, the readings for today remind us of our need for continual conversion and that God takes an active role in calling us to a change of heart.

In the first reading we hear the story of the burning bush.  God reveals Himself and His plan to save the children of Abraham from slavery to Egypt, and bring them into "a land flowing with milk and honey."  He reveals His love and closeness to the Israelites calling Himself, "the God of your fathers."  The responsorial psalm then repeats this theme: "The Lord is kind and merciful."

In the second reading, St. Paul recalls the wonderful acts of God who lead the Israelites out of Egypt and cared for them on their journey through the desert.  These acts of love and mercy on God's part were met, however, with obstinacy and grumbling on the part of the Israelites who refused to give up their evil ways.  But as St. Paul says, "yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert."

We now come to the Gospel quote given at the top of this post.  How are we to interpret the tragic accidents of life?  Are we to see God reaching out His hand to strike down those who sin against Him?  If we accept that kind of interpretation, then a certain thought process will begin evolving in our minds - we could sum it up with the following (faulty) logic: "God strikes down sinners.  God has not struck me with lightening.  Therefore God does not consider me a sinner."  Here the idea is that if I am not smitten by God when I sin, then the sin must be okay, or not that bad, therefore I can continue as I like and God won't mind.  Surprising and ridiculous as it sounds when spelled out, this is a rather common way of thinking.  I could continue outlining other faulty conclusions based on a similar mentality, but we would get off track. 

So what is the proper way to interpret a tragic accident?  Jesus gives us the proper interpretation with the quote above: "Those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?  By no means!  But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"  The point is that tragedy is not a sign of guilt, but that the tragic events of life should serve as a wake-up call for us, a call to conversion - a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.  Pope Benedict said something similar in today's Sunday Angelus Message: 

"In the face of the easy conclusion of considering evil as the effect of divine punishment, Jesus proclaims the innocence of God, who is good and can not will evil, and warns against the thought that misfortunes are the immediate effect of the personal sins of the one who suffers them...Jesus invites us to read the facts differently, placing them in the perspective of conversion: misfortunes and sad events should not arouse curiosity in us or a search for alleged culprits, but should represent occasions for reflection, to conquer the illusion of being able to live without God, and to strengthen, with the help of the Lord, the commitment to change one's life." [translation mine]

The second half of today's Gospel presents us with the parable of the sterile fig tree.  The owner of the orchard comes along and gives the gardener the order to cut down the fig tree since it is not bearing fruit.  The gardener pleads with the owner and says he will cultivate and fertilize the ground around the tree for one year, and if there is still no fruit after that then he will cut it down.  With this parable we hear the same lesson as above: if our life becomes sterile and the Lord does not find the good fruit which He has a right to expect, then we can expect things to be churned up in our life and the presence of a little "fertilizer" to be mixed in as well.  Instead of interpreting the misfortunes that befall us as a sign of a vengeful God, we should understand that He is actively calling us to himself through a change of heart and life.  He calls us to live in His goodness and mercy so we may be prepared to enter the true land of "milk and honey" - our heavenly homeland.

(Photo of "Barren Tree" courtesy of Br. Lawrence Lew, O.P.)

Remember the Marvels of the Lord

Click Here for the Mass Readings for Today:

It is late Friday night here in Rome (10pm), but I thought I would say a short word before going to bed.

I would like to start with the first stanza of today's responsorial psalm: "When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave."  The psalm is related to our first reading, which recounted the story of Israel's youngest son, Joseph, who was hated and mistreated by his brothers and sold into slavery for 20 pieces of silver.

The stanza above comes from Psalm 105 and can offer us an interpretation of Joseph's story.  When we listen to the first reading all we hear is the historical story of Joseph; there is no interpretation of the story, no moving beyond the actual event.  In the responsorial psalm, however, we see the psalmist is reflecting back upon Joseph's sufferings and humiliation.  The psalmist penetrates the historical event with the eyes of faith and finds God at work in the background.  God sent Joseph ahead of the Israelite people into Egypt in order to prepare the way for them.  Joseph was sold as a slave, but he eventually became one of the most powerful men in Egypt, and it was because of him that the Israelite people were welcomed into the land by pharaoh.  That is why the responsorial psalm repeats, "remember the marvels the Lord has done."

The Lord's providence is mysterious, but we see in the story of Joseph that God does not forget us in our trials and sufferings.  He has a plan for each of us, and is always working to bring it to fulfillment.  Joseph's story should be an encouragement for us, that in misery and rejection God does not forget us.  God raises up the lowly and grants salvation.  There is another aspect though.  Often after we have passed through a certain trial and received God's consolation, other people come into our lives who have need of the same consolation we received.  This is where the marvels of God manifest themselves most powerfully and God's providence becomes more visible to us - that others can find new life and consolation from what we suffered.  God bless you.

(Photo of "Joseph the Patriarch" courtesy of Br. Lawrence Lew, O.P.)

Blessed is the Man who Trusts in the Lord

Click Here for the Mass Readings for Today:

We heard today's first reading and responsorial psalm about 3 weeks ago, but they are worth listening to and meditating upon once again.  The basic theme can be summarized as follows: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and walks in His ways; cursed is the man who places his hopes in man and turns his heart away from God.  The more I learn through the experiences of life, the more these words ring true.

On one hand, there are times when we can place too much of our hope and happiness in others, or depend upon them in an unhealthy way.  In a simple manner of saying it, we can be too attached.  Other times, however, we can depend too mightily upon ourselves, our own strength, and we can find ourselves trying to always be in control.  As humans we are weak and can have a difficult time trusting in God.  Luckily, God is here to help us.

In God's providence we are sometimes placed in situations where we feel helpless and have no way of remedying the difficulty.  In these moments we need to look at our lives to see where we are not depending on God.  Why has God given me something I cannot handle, and now refuses to take it away?  This was St. Paul's dilemma with the "thorn in the flesh."  He prayed three times for God to take it away, and his prayer was refused.  God was teaching St. Paul to trust not in his own strength, but in the strength that comes from God.  We all need to learn the truth of Jesus' words, "without me you can do nothing," and the corresponding truth, "with God all things are possible."  If we depend too much on our own strength the Lord teaches us the weakness of it all through the concrete experiences of our life.  This is usually a long and hard lesson to learn because we don't like to admit it, but it is the path to humility and blessedness. We will indeed be blessed when we can cry out, "enough! I give up! I need you! Please help me."

God knows the best lesson for us, and how to free us from our trust in this world or anything outside of Him.  It is sometimes the case that we become angry or frustrated because we cannot obtain (or maintain) something we want and we don't realize we are fighting God.  It seems to me that God works extra hard in our lives during Lent!  He goes to work to free us from so many things within.  He tries to set us free and we resist - which is normal.  But it is important to pause and reflect on what is taking place within, to see the resistance we put up, to ask the Lord how He is working within us, and what He is trying to accomplish.  We might not be able to see it immediately, but we can give Him permission to continue working within us nonetheless. We can also ask Him to grant us His strength for whatever we have to face, and to help us respond generously to His plan.  Let us frequently remind ourselves of Jesus' words, "without me you can do nothing."  God bless you.

(Photo of "Faith" courtesy of Br. Lawrence Lew, O.P.)