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CONVERSION
PRECLUDES DESPAIR OR VAIN CONFIDENCE IN THE GRACE OF GOD
24 MARCH, 2019,
Sunday, 3rd Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 ©
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'I AM has sent me to you'
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Moses was looking after the flock of
Jethro, his father-in-law priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of
the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the
Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of
a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up.
‘I must go and look at this strange sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush
is not burnt.’ Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from
the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ Moses answered.
‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you
stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,’ he said, ‘the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his
face, afraid to look at God.
And
the Lord said, ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have
heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of
their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and
bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and
honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.’
Then
Moses said to God, ‘I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them,
“The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” But if they ask me what his name
is, what am I to tell them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he
added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’
And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: “The Lord,
the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time; by this name I shall
be invoked for all generations to come.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
102(103):1-4,6-8,11 ©
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The Lord is compassion
and love.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy
name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his
blessings.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your
ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and
compassion,
The Lord is compassion
and love.
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who
are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s
sons.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in
mercy.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth
so strong is his love for
those who fear him.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
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Second reading
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1 Corinthians
10:1-6,10-12 ©
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The life of the people under Moses in
the desert was written down to be a lesson for us
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I want to remind you, brothers, how our
fathers were all guided by a cloud above them and how they all passed through
the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in this cloud and in this sea; all
ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they
all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them as they went, and that
rock was Christ. In spite of this, most of them failed to please God and their
corpses littered the desert.
These
things all happened as warnings for us, not to have the wicked lusts for
forbidden things that they had. You must never complain: some of them did, and
they were killed by the Destroyer.
All
this happened to them as a warning, and it was written down to be a lesson for
us who are living at the end of the age. The man who thinks he is safe must be
careful that he does not fall.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt4:17
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Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word
of God!
Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven is close at
hand.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word
of God!
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Gospel
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Luke 13:1-9 ©
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'Leave the fig tree one more year'
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Some people arrived and told Jesus about
the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At
this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that
were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No;
but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on
whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were
more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I
tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’
He
told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came
looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the
vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit
on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the
ground?” “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig
round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut
it down.”’
CONVERSION
PRECLUDES DESPAIR OR VAIN CONFIDENCE IN THE GRACE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ EX 3:1-8, 13-15; 1 COR 10:1-6, 10-12; LK 13:1-9 ]
We are entering into the third week of the
season of Lent. The Church continues to invite us to conversion and
self-renewal. Yet this exhortation to conversion might not yet have been
taken too seriously. This is because some of us either feel that we are
too damned to be converted or because we are “not that bad” and so do not
really need conversion. Today’s scripture readings caution us against
such extreme attitudes of despair and self-confidence since both are obstacles
to conversion and growth. We must respond to the call for conversion
before it is too late.
Let us begin with those
who consider themselves to be sinners and yet do not respond to the call to
conversion. They feel that
they are unworthy and hopeless as they are unable to overcome their
sinfulness. They are like the Israelites who felt that they had no hope
under the slavery of the Egyptians. This bleak outlook towards life is aptly
captured in today’s parable when the owner of the vineyard gave up on the fig
tree that had not borne fruit for three years, “Cut it down: why should it be
taking up the ground.” Losing hope and falling into despair is
self-destructive. It is a lack of faith in God, in divine providence and
divine mercy but ultimately in oneself.
The scripture readings
invite us to take courage. There is no need to fall into despair, for God
loves us and is merciful towards us.
The first reading tells us that God is with us. He told Moses, “I have
seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard of their
appeal to be free of their slave drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their
sufferings.” Our God is a God who cares and is very much involved in our
lives and history. He might appear to be oblivious to our
sufferings but that is only our perception. God is not a retired Creator,
nor has He gone on leave.
Nay, the history of the people of
God has always testified to us that in their crises they always experienced God
as a God of compassion and love. Like the man in the gospel who said,
“leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it; it may
bear fruit next year”; so too, God is giving us time to come to terms with
ourselves and take the path of new life. In God’s eyes, we
are never hopeless or condemned. However, if we do not repent we
will all perish as Jesus warns us and it might be too late.
Of course, some of us might belong
to the so-called good people and good Christians. For this group
of people, the invitation to conversion is not readily accepted as they
are complacent and self-righteous. The problem is that we can be so
confident of God’s love and mercy that we take Him for granted. One
of the greatest tragedies in life is that because of over-confidence, many of
us do not truly appreciate the gifts or the blessings that we have. Yes,
many of us abuse the privileges and opportunities we have in life.
This was the situation of the Israelites
in salvation history. Notwithstanding that God identified Himself with
the sufferings of the Israelites when they were only slaves in Egypt, that they
were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; that they ate the
spiritual food and drink that God gave to them in the desert; manna from heaven
and water from the rock at Meribah; yet, after all that God had done for these
people, “most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the
desert.” What a tragedy indeed!
This too was what happened to the
Christians at Corinth. Like them, we might have been baptized
into Christ and partaken of His body and blood, but we have taken the grace of
God and our faith too lightly. We think that once we have been
baptized, our passport is secured. We fail to realize that baptism is
only the beginning of our journey to death to self in Christ. If we think
that we are safe simply because we have been baptized and receive the Eucharist
every Sunday then we are wrong. Without living our baptismal vows
sincerely and living out the full significance of the paschal mystery when we
receive the Eucharist, we cannot claim to have a share in the life of Christ.
Our over-confidence
could cause us to perish like
the Israelites and the Christians at Corinth. St Paul warns us,
“The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall.”
The parable of the fig tree serves as a reminder for us. Although God is
patient with us and merciful, yet a time must come for judgment. If we do
not bear fruit, we will be cut down. Sure, He will give us time, but we
cannot take His compassion for granted and make a mockery of it. He
gives us one more year, but a time will come when we have to be accountable for
our decisions. And then it would be too late.
That is why we must always be alert and
attentive to the signs of God inviting us to constant conversion and
self-renewal. Regardless of whether we are sinners or good
Christians, we must not miss out on the grace for conversion and a renewal of
our faith during this season of Lent. Like Moses, we are called to be
more attentive to the signs of God calling us to the burning bush, that is, the
presence of God, so that He can burn away our miseries, our selfishness, and
hard-heartedness.
How should we pay
attention to the burning bush in our lives today? It is highly unlikely that God
would appear to us as He did to Moses at Mount Horeb. But He would
certainly appear to us in similar circumstances. Just as Moses found God
in the burning bush while he was shepherding the flock of Jethro, so too, God
will speak to us in the daily circumstances of our lives. St Paul who
studied the history of Israel and their blunders said, “these things all
happened as warnings for us, not to have the wicked lusts for forbidden things
that they had … All this happened to them as a warning, and it was written down
to be a lesson for us who are living at the end of the age.” So it is in
our history that we hear God speaking to us anew. That is why it is important
to know the history of our fathers so that we might not repeat the same
mistakes.
Contemporary events are
also signs from God.
Jesus responded to the disasters that happened during His time, namely, the
Galileans whom Pilate slaughtered in the middle of their sacrifices; and the
tower at Siloam which fell and killed eighteen people. Jesus did not
speculate what could have been the cause of such accidents and incidents,
unlike the Jews. Quite often, such speculation and rationalization divert
us from looking at ourselves. Idle speculation is just another form of
escapism from looking at the reality. This is usually the case, for when
we read or hear of the misfortunes of others, we are more concerned about them
than about ourselves.
God speaks to us through
others’ misfortunes as
well. Consider the gossips about the scandals of political and religious
leaders. We gossip about their failures and human weaknesses. But
have we looked at our own selves to see whether we are equally guilty and that
we could even be worse than them? Instead of condemning others, we must
learn from their mistakes and come to recognize ours as well.
Most of all, we must pay attention
to the events in our personal lives, especially our successes, failures,
and tragedies. Even though some of us might have suffered some crises in
our lives, we do not reflect deeply and hence do not derive much from such
events when they are meant to be God-encounters. Through such personal
events, God is teaching and disciplining us. Instead of finding
scapegoats for our miseries, we must take courage and confront ourselves.
Instead of grumbling against God for our failures, we must see where we have
failed. If only we have been a little more receptive, docile and attentive
to our sicknesses and failures, we would have learnt to appreciate life, love,
health, and people even more. Without such experiences, we often take our
lives, health and loved ones for granted.
Finally, let us remember that the
privileged place where God speaks to us is still within the Holy Ground, that
is, the sanctuary of God in prayer. God wishes to speak to us
through His presence in the scriptures and in the liturgy. Hence, above
all, before we can even recognize the presence and signs of God speaking to us
in our history, in daily events, and in our lives, it presupposes that we have
already come to know Him personally in prayer and worship. Thus, if we
are to be docile to God’s promptings in our lives, we need to pray and allow
God to speak to us in the Holy Ground. If we truly hear Him in our lives
and respond to His call to conversion and renewal, we will not perish but have
eternal life. Otherwise, it might be too late.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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