March 7, 2010
Third Sunday of Lent
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we continue our Lenten pilgrimage we pause this weekend to break open the Word of God and reflect on the call to holiness as we listen to the story of Moses as he encounters the Lord in the burning bush. This is a very important encounter between the Lord and us, represented by Moses. There are two important elements to the event in Exodus, chapter 3: Moses receives a call from God to be the leader of His people, and God reveals His Holiness, and in doing so reveals His Name to Moses. First, let us reflect on the call: God appears to Moses in the form of a bush enveloped by fire. This image is well-suited to the story of the exodus of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land, and it is well-suited for the journey of conversion during our Lent, because it (the bush) symbolizes the relationship between God and all of humanity. The fragile bush in the desert, like humanity, could easily be consumed by the purifying fire of God’s holiness if it were not for God’s gracious mercy. The fire symbolizes God’s holiness, God’s purity and God’s love, which cleanses and enflames us with His life. Lent is thus the time where we draw close to the holiness of God, especially as He is present in the Holy Eucharist, in order to be purified and enlightened by His fire of divine love. But we must not take this for granted. We are called to “mortify” ourselves, which means that we deny ourselves of certain pleasures and enjoyments so that we are able to see that God is the only thing we really need in life and that God is the only one who will fulfill all our desires. This was challenging and scary to Moses, because the call to holiness meant that he had to give up his comforts and certitudes in order to follow God’s call in faith and truly put his trust in Him, wherever that would lead him in the exodus of the people.
Second, God reveals His name as “I am who am.” Another way to translate this is “I am who fulfills what I promise” or “You shall know me by what I shall do for you.” For the Hebrews, the name of a person reveals their deepest and most profound identity of who they are. This is what God does in His revelation to Moses: In revealing His Holy Name He is revealing to Moses, and to all of us, who He really is. For the Jews, the Name of God is so Holy that it cannot be pronounced out loud, so when they read the Jewish Scriptures in the Synagogue – even to this day – they will always substitute God’s name in the printed text of the Bible with another substitute name, like, for example, “God,” or “the Lord,” or “Holy One.” But just as important is the reason why God reveals His Name to Moses and to all of us: He wants to have a personal relationship with us even in the midst of our sin, bondage and infidelity. And through this invitation He invites us to respond to Him with faith. Our response is what our Lent is all about – God reveals His inner life to us, are we ready and willing to open ourselves completely to Him?
In the Gospel today, from Luke chapter 13, we listen to a difficult passage that is frequently misunderstood. Some people report to Jesus to horrible incidents that occurred in Jerusalem: One group of people was slaughtered by Pontius Pilate’s guards when they tried to rebel against him, and another group died in an accident when a tower fell on them. This reminds us of currents events, like the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, or the victims of the drug cartel, or the casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We ask the same question the people asked Jesus: Were these deaths divine punishment for sin? Jesus’ answer is “By no means!” He says to us and to them that the people who died were not greater sinners, and in saying this He affirms the need for universal repentance. In other words, as unfortunate as disasters and horrible deaths are, they are not reflections on the sins of any person at any given time. Rather, everyone is a sinner, regardless of how they die, and everyone is in need of sincere repentance. For the Catholic, this means that we also have to unite ourselves with the death and resurrection of Christ, because in Christ death has no more power over us. It is true that death still happens, but what is different is that we have already overcome the power of death if we are united to Christ in his death. We do this through our Baptism and participation in the Holy Eucharist. Lent is the time for us to renew our faith and our practice in these central aspects of our relationship with God.
-Rev. Todd Molinari