THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

God is not an abstract God, not a God far removed from us, but a God who intervenes in history in our behalf. He is Yahweh who has seen the oppression and heard the cries of Israel in Egypt and calls Moses to bring the Jews out of Egypt (first reading). He refreshes the Israelites in the desert with water from the rock (second reading). He sends down his son to give us a last chance to repent and thus accept salvation (gospel). This would be one theme for a homily. But since the last three Sundays of Lent (third, fourth and fifth) speak about penance and conversion in particular, one might concentrate the homily on penance, as suggested by the gospel and the second reading.

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-8a. 13-15

The Jews were oppressed by the Egyptians. Moses had made an attempt to do some liberating on his own and once killed an Egyptian who was treating his fellow-Jews harshly (Ex 2:13). But since Moses was not called by God yet, nor authorized, this attempt failed; Moses had to flee to Midian (Ex 2:15). It looked as if God would not care, as if God would not see the oppression of his people. But that was only apparent. In due time he would intervene.

This time came when Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro at Mount Horeb (the name the Elohistic Source gives to the Mount Sinai). God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and revealed his name. After all, a person without a name we cannot understand. The interpretation of the name "Yahweh" is not unanimous.

(1) The interpretation of "I am who I am" (Ex 3:14) suggests that God is the ens a se. He exists by himself and does not owe his existence to anybody else as we do. (Thus the name would come from HYH).

(2) Others would explain the name as “the one who causes to be" (Thus the name would be the causative form of HYH). God gives life.

(3) The context especially suggests the interpretation of “I am (present and ready to act and save)”. HYH is then not an auxiliary verb, not something static, but dynamic as verbs usually are in Hebrew. God has heard Israel's cries; now he is ready to intervene and save Israel and free it from slavery. Moses shall be his instrument. God wants to be known mainly by that name: I am close to save, I am ready to help.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6.10-12

Some of the Corinthians were not taking life as a Christian serious enough; they were not living their commitment, thinking that to be baptized would be enough. This resulted partly in party spirit, siding with either Cephas, Paul, Apollos or Christ (claiming a special nearness to him), or resulting in idolatry by attending sacrificial banquets in honor of idols.

Paul tells them: "See yourselves pictured in the Book of Exodus (Ex 17:5-6)! The Jews in the desert also thought it, it would be enough to be a Jew, to be circumcised. And so they did not come up to their call. God fed them well with manna and quail and gave them wonderful water from the rock. And that rock in some mysterious way was already Christ, since Christ who was active in creation, was also active in the history of the chosen people before his incarnation. And yet, in spite of all these privileges God was not pleased with most of the Jews, since they did not live a life of commitment. As a matter of fact, all died in the desert, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.”

The destroyer mentioned in 1 Cor 10:10 is most likely the plague of Num 16.

Paul draws the conclusion for the Corinthians and for us: if we want to be sure that we will escape destruction we must take heed lest we fall. Nobody is sure that he will not sin and sin grievously. This last idea connects the second reading to the main thought of the gospel: We must do penance.

Reading of the Good News: Luke 13:1-9

The pericope consists of two halves: (1) 13:1-5 and (2) 13:6-9.

(1) Lk 13:1-5 describes two contemporary events, which were known to Christ's hearers, but not to us. (a) Galileans had come to the Temple to offer sacrifices, but had caused some trouble. Thus Pilate had murdered them in the middle of their sacrifices. Pilate was capable of such ruthless methods, as we know from historical events reported in Flavius Josephus Antiquities XVIII, iii 2; iv, 1. Pilate had decided to build a new water supply for Jerusalem, which was quite necessary. But he had used certain Temple monies for it. This put the Jews up in arms. When the mobs gathered, Pilate instructed his soldiers to mingle with them. The soldiers had cloaks over their battle dress so that they were disguised. They carried cudgels instead of swords. At a given signal they were to fall on the mob and dispersed them. This was done but the soldiers over-did it and killed some people.

(a) Of the second incident we know even less. During the construction of a tower near the spring of Siloam, in the valley southeast of Jerusalem, the tower collapsed and killed eighteen construction workers.

Christ draws the conclusion: None of all those killed in the two cases was more guilty than an average Jew. It could have happened to anybody. And if the present Jews do not do penance, amend their ways and stop their rebellions ways against the Romans, Jerusalem will be destroyed, and they all will perish.

(2) Lk 13:6-9 tells a parable. A man has planted a fig-tree and has been looking for fruit for three years (which makes us think that Christ saw in the fig-tree the Jews who did not bear fruit during his three years of public activity). The keeper of the vineyard (fig-trees usually grow in vineyards) asks the master to cut the tree down. But the master suggests to use fertilizer as a last resort to make the tree bear fruit.

(a) A person, who only takes and never gives, cannot survive.

(b) But the Lord gives his tree (us) a second chance.

HOMILY
UNLESS YOU REPENT YOU WILL ALL PERISH

1. Lent is a time of repentance. Repentance is a word we do not like to hear, but it stands there in the gospel on key positions of Christ's life, especially in the gospel of St. Luke:

a. When Christ comes to Galilee to start his public career as Messiah Mark sums up Jesus' preaching with the words: ‘The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mk 1:15). Repentance is therefore the central kerygma of Christ.

b. After his resurrection Christ sums up the task of his apostles for their future preaching telling the two disciples of Emmaus: "Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In his name, penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Lk 24:47).

c. When the Pharisees and scribes complain that Christ calls the sinner Levi to follow him as apostle, the Lord justifies himself with the words: "I have come not to invite the self-righteous but the sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:32).

d. And as we see in today's gospel, the Lord tells the Jews that those fellowmen of theirs who were killed by Pilate’s soldiers and those who were killed by a falling tower at the spring Siloam were not more guilty than any average person of his hearers, and he concludes: "You will all come to the same end unless you do penance” (Lk 13:3). There is no doubt, we have to do penance.

2. But most of us have many excuses ready for not doing penance.

a. A first series of excuses goes something like this: “Prayer is a more spiritual thing than penance. It is higher and nobler and will be continued in heaven long after penance has been done away with. Prayer unites us positively with God, and therefore must be given more attention than mortification, which is at best a negative affair, a going against self. Prayer looks upward and outward, expressing love, while penance looks back, expressing contrition for past failures. Prayer offers to God the soul, mortification offers only the body.”

All this is true as far as it goes. But the point is not which of the two is better, but how to get the best out of each, because we need them both. Furthermore, real penance is an act of love, and will bring the soul closer to God. Otherwise it should not be practiced at all.

b. A second series of excuses runs like this: “The human race is declining in stamina, and therefore the penances, which were all very well for our ancestors are outmoded today. The rough types of men in the middle Ages required a rough system of control. But modern asceticism must keep in step with modern developments and the refinement of man's nature. After all, the darkness of prayer, which the mystics of the present day are talking about, is more sanctifying than all mortifications of older times."

But is it really true that our generation is less physically robust than those of earlier years? The many hardships endured during the two World Wars could teach us something different. Some would like to excuse everything with poorer nerves. Yet neurotics are not something new in the history of mankind. Only the name is new not the phenomenon.

Some will say: "If we endure our many sicknesses we do enough penance. There were not so many sicknesses year ago.” But the fact that there are so many sicknesses only proves that medicine is much more advanced nowadays than years ago. What in the past was placed under one heading is nowadays specified into different kinds of maladies. Many sicknesses were just called "fever", which in reality is only the symptom of a sickness, not a sickness itself. St. Luke, the "doctor" among the evangelist distinguishes even between "fever" and "great fever". The mother-in-law of Peter was suffering from such a "great fever" (Lk 4:38). And they asked Jesus to heal her. Would they have bothered Jesus to perform a miracle just for a fever? Would Christ not have answered: "Give her a cup or two of mulled wine or hot tea and make her sweat. Then the fever will be gone tomorrow! Why bother me to perform a miracle!"

Even one of the most frequent causes of death today, cancer, may not be a modern sickness but is perhaps already described in the way of a layman when St. Luke in Acts 12:23 says that Herod Agrippa "was eaten up by worms and died." Notice the sequence; It does not say: "He died and was eaten up by worms" as it will be with us at the end of our life. But he "was eaten up by worms and died" which could sound like the pains of cancer of the intestines.

And the fact that people nowadays are more often in the hospital than years ago does not prove we have less stamina but proves only that today there are more hospitals, there is more social security and thus people have more time and money to spend in a hospital. Years ago they could not have afforded it in terms of money and time.

Thus there is no real excuse for not doing penance. It remains true: "Unless you do penance you will all perish."

3. But how shall we do penance?

a. Mk 1:15 tells what "repent" means when Christ says: "The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel!" To repent means in Greek metanoein "to make an about-face", to "change in one's thinking", "to reform". So far we ourselves have been in the center of our attention, from now on Christ must be placed in the center of our life. In the above verse of Mark the second half of the verse makes clear what the first means: To repent means "to believe in the gospel", to believe in Christ present in the gospel. When we read the gospel or hear it we cannot remain neutral. We have to take a stand and either accept Christ, present in the gospel and then we have eternal life, or we reject him and then we have condemned ourselves already now. In John 5:24 Christ tells us: "I solemnly assure you, the man who hears my word and has faith in him who sent me possesses eternal life. He does not come under condemnation, but has passed from death to life." And this accepting of Christ in his word, in his gospel is at the same time the guarantee that we will rise on the last day: "An hour is coming in which all those in their tombs shall hear his voice and come forth" (Jn 5:28).

To believe in the gospel, in Christ present in the gospel will also lead us to believe in him present in Holy Eucharist. And this would be another good Lenten practice besides listening to Christ present in the gospel and doing what he tells us: In John 6:54 Christ tells us: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up on the last day." It is no coincidence that the liturgy of Lent is so rich. The lessons of each Mass are especially selected. The church knew: "If our body shall fast our soul must have a good time.”

b. The most effective sacrifices are those which God sends us our way by circumstances and conditions: sickness and disease, bodily defects, heat and cold, hunger and thirst, the strain and hardships connected with the fulfillment of our duties; charity and patience with members of the neighborhood and community, their faults and shortcomings; ready acceptance of appointments, which imply changes of work, and of associations that may have become very dear to us.

c. Interior penances again are more important and more sanctifying than corporal penances. We must mortify our hot temper, curiosity, vanity and uncharity. We must not shout at somebody or shame somebody in public.

d. Yet, it is also true that some freely chosen corporal penance is necessary too. No matter how little or how much it might be, it must at least be something. It will prove and foster our generosity. "Only those who use force will enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 11:12).