Third Sunday of Lent Cycle C
03/16/2022
Cycle C
March 20, 2022
Review the Readings for Mass without RCIA
Without Catechumens Cycle C is used
Below if you attend a Mass with RCIA...Catechuments
Cycle A is used
Below is for those attending a Mass with those to be baptized at Easter and this will be a Mass with the Scrutinies
Click here for...Information on the RCIA Scrutinies for those to be Baptized at Easter
Review the Readings at Mass with RCIA
My Reflection on Mass Readings with RCIA
My Reflection below is for the Mass Readings without RCIA
As we listen to the readings for this Sunday, it is important to place ourselves as the ones being addressed and not just think of what happened as a story of long ago.
We are the Israelites in the first reading, we are the Corinthians in the second reading, we are the Jews Jesus is talking to in the Gospel.
The readings during Lent are to help each of us look more deeply into our spiritual lives and to grow, not by looking just at our successes,s but more importantly at our failures. That is where real growth begins and it does takes grace and courage to do this. That is what Lent is for. Courage!
God calls Moses to lead his people out of the slavery of Egypt. At last,
God will answer their pleas throughout generations. We all know the story that we hear again this Sunday. Every day God gives us a new Moses, Jesus Christ, to lead us out of our slavery, SIN. Everyday there is a way to receive mercy and forgiveness that Jesus has gained for each of us.
But, we need to heed what Saint Paul said in his letter that we hear at the Celebration of the Eucharist this Sunday. He reminds them and us not to become over confident just because we have been called at our Baptism by God. He reminds them of how the Israelites, even after being released from the slavery of Egypt, after being taken safely through the water and watching their enemy destroyed, after being feed and care for in their desert journey, they still turned from God to other pagan gods.
Do we, like the Israelites grumble when things don't go our way? In a difficult situation or with a difficult person do we doubt that God is there?
Like the Israelites it is so easy for each of us to turn to pagan gods, to idols, e.g. power, money, drugs legal or illegal, sex, etc. to take away the pain and doubt of our having to deal with the struggle or difficult situation, also known as the CROSS. It can be so easy to just give up, thinking we will never change.
But there is hope. God never gave up on the Israelites and He will not give up on us.
In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus tell the parable of the fig tree.
The owner wants to have the tree cut down because it has not produced figs.
What about us?
Are we producing spiritual fruit, spiritual figs, e.g. making God present to other through our life, not just words but also our actions???
We know the story. The gardener tells the owner to wait a year. He will fertilize the tree and see if it will begin to produce figs. God does not give up on any of us.
He too, is willing to fertilize us and see if we can produce spiritual fruit.
God seems to fertilize us with situations and events in our lives that are not always what we would choose. Yet, if we think of them as manure from God, that can help us to produce spiritual figs, (mercy, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, etc.)
So we continue our Lenten journey into the desert of Lent.
Perhaps the disciplines of Prayer, Fasting, and Alms Giving will all be manure to fertilize us and to help us to see more fully where we are spiritually.
Then we will truly experience the resurrection from sin. Everyday we have that opportunity. Let us never give up, but always we willing to start again and again.
Today He comes!!!
Comments