Third Sunday of Lent, March 23, 2025

2025 Mar 23 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
Ex 3: 1-8a. 13-15/ Ps 103: 1-2. 3-4. 6-7. 8. 11 (8a)/ 1 Cor 10: 1-6. 10-12/ Lk 13: 1-9

It is good to learn that Pope Francis has been released from the hospital. He was going to do -- so this would have been almost four hours ago, a noon praying of the Angelus that is a Sunday noon day custom, there in Rome. And following that he was going back to his home in the Casa Santa Marta. And the doctors say that he will need at least two months of recuperation. It's remarkable that the doctors also said he's been a very good patient. Well, I hope so. [Laughter] But, you know, we're talking about repentance today, and from what I can tell, Pope Francis has this deep, deep urge to be active. And when you have that attitude, it is a hard thing to acknowledge your limits. And you've probably heard this more than once from me that word "limits" is a very big word in my own spirituality. Because I remember that I am God's creature. I am necessarily limited. I am not the one God who is unlimited. So we continue to pray for Pope Francis, and we are grateful that he will remain with us. And we look forward to everything which comes from the next years of his papacy.

These readings seem to be about time. We have this second reading in which St. Paul is making connections between the Exodus of the Israelites and our own Christian sacramental life, particularly baptism and Eucharist. He is comparing baptism to the escape through the parted Red Sea and connecting the Holy Eucharist with the manna from heaven. 

So this is a profound encounter between God and Moses. When it comes to fast and slow, Moses saw this bush that was aflame, and he was assuming that the flame would very quickly consume the bush, but that did not happen. God told Moses of his concern for the people, and that he would deliver them from their slavery. When we think about the events of the Exodus, the tenth plague upon the Egyptians was the death of the firstborn, and this happened in one night. And the Israelites had to leave in great haste. On the other hand, once they escaped, they wandered in the desert for 40 years. 

So we find various expectations about how long something is going to take. And we have to acknowledge that as we move from our slavery to sin, it seems to us to be a long process, particularly, I believe, because we know that we have to change certain habits of ours, and the habits have been long in the making, and undoing them takes a long time as well.

But as we turn to the Gospel, we understand that repentance, in the sense of being a turning toward God, that turning cannot be delayed on our part because the gift of forgiveness, the gift of mercy, is such a precious gift that we must not presume upon it, even though we know we drag our feet in many ways.

And Jesus is saying, don't conclude just from your observation that something terrible happened to someone, that this was God's judgment upon them.

In fact, he directs us to this parable, the fig tree which is not bearing fruit. And the owner of the orchard wants to do away with this tree, but the gardener says, "Give it another year. We'll give it some special attention." Well, this is our time to give ourselves special attention. We know we must quickly orient ourselves toward our God. God does give us time for this cultivation, for this fertilizing.

As we sang in the psalm, "The Lord is kind and merciful." We welcome the time which God gives us, and we want to recognize that this moment is a most acceptable time for the turning of our hearts.