By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, CSSp., 3rd Sunday of Lent year C.
(Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15; Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9)
Dear friends in Christ,
Many a time, we see people glory in the misfortune that befall their enemies. It is very easy to believe that people who do certain things that we consider unwholesome, or people who are different and live differently, are doing something very wrong. Worse still, when people suffer as a result of their fault, for something they did, we say that it serves them right. There are many such examples today. That was precisely what those who came to Jesus in the gospel believed about the Galileans whom Pilate slaughtered and mingled their blood with their sacrifice. This human attitude and sense of justice work better when it has to do with someone else. But if one of our own is involved, the attitude quickly changes.
It was clear that those who had this judgment about the Galileans had a holier-than-thou attitude. For them, the Galileans were sinners while they were the holy ones. By making such a judgment, they distanced themselves from those Galileans. When you judge someone, condemn him or her, and distance yourself from the person, there is no way you can understand the situation of the person and be of help to him or her. As Mother Theresa rightly pointed out, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
Last week, I read a piece titled, “The first time I wept in Church” written by a young Nigerian man named James Terna on his Facebook page. In that piece, he narrated how he always sat in the same seat at church to avoid distractions. For months, a quiet and almost invisible woman occupied the seat beside him, always alone and often tearful during Mass. At first, he paid little attention, but one Sunday, he noticed she was trembling and appeared unwell. He often considered speaking to her but never did. One Sunday, he resolved to talk to her after Mass but got distracted. When he finally turned around, she was gone. The next week, he planned to reach out to her, but she was absent for the first time. Week after week, her seat remained empty. Then, the parish announced her passing. She had died alone, with no family, and the church had to arrange her burial. The realization struck James deeply. He had been physically present in church but had failed to truly see the suffering soul beside him. He wept, just as the lady had wept many times before without being noticed. At her burial, James brought flowers, but it felt meaningless. He reflected on how often people neglect the suffering around them, only to show up when it’s too late—traveling miles for a funeral but failing to check in and care when it truly matters.
The readings we have today call us to repentance and go further to point out what is required of us to show that we truly repent. First, Jesus used the parable of the fig tree that failed to bear fruit to remind us of the saying, “By their fruits, you shall know them”. So, being repentant is shown by the fruit we bear. John the Baptist made it his theme when the people came to him for baptism. He told them, “Bear fruits that befit repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance is not something we claim, but something that claims us – something that changes everything about us: our perspective about life and death, about our relationship with God and people around us, about our attitude to material things, our strivings in life, and so on. It is felt by those we relate to because the Godliness in a repented soul is readily felt, and leaves footprints wherever we go. The Christian life is not private. There must be synchronism between our private life and life in public. We cannot confess Jesus in the Church and deny him once we get out there in the public. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33, “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”.
Jesus went further to assure us that God is patient with the sinner just as the owner of the vineyard was patient with the unfruitful fig tree. But such patience has a time limit. For the fig tree, it was three years. For human beings, we do not know how long because no one knows when his or her life will end. The story of James Terna shows that God provides us with the opportunity to bear fruit by being God’s loving presence to someone in need. However, our ability to recognize such an opportunity depends on our understanding of what it means to live the life of God. It happens that we are so concentrated on ourselves, our salvation, our interests, and our well-being that we do not recognize the person next to us. Yet, when Jesus was discussing the criteria for attaining eternal life in heaven, he said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25: 40). And that brings us to the first reading where we see Moses being sent to Egypt to liberate the Israelites in slavery.
Before the mission to Egypt, Moses had tried severally to fight for his people, having seen their pitiable situation. On one such occasion, he killed an Egyptian who was fighting an Israelite. But when the same Israelite betrayed him, he feared for his life and fled to Midian (Exodus 2:14). He started a new life with Jethro, the priest of Midian whose daughter he married. It was at this period that he was busy building up his family that God came to send him back to the same Egypt he was fleeing to liberate the people who betrayed him. The mission of Moses was not for his well being, but that of others. The text of the reading made it clear that the call of Moses was significant, filled with the strange phenomenon of a burning bush. He was not to find it easy. But when God revealed his name “I AM WHO I AM”, it became clear to Moses that what his human effort could not achieve is possible with God. What was required of him was to make himself available and let God do the rest.
When you realize that your life has a purpose that goes beyond your interest, you will begin to understand that you have a mission to accomplish. And that mission is given to you by God who is only waiting for you to say yes. Jesus came to accomplish a mission. He recognized it as something required of him by his Father. Moses was called to accomplish a mission. He could see the hand of God in that call. We are all called to accomplish one mission or the other. But without repentance from our self-centeredness, egoism, hatred, sin, and everything that blinds us and keeps us away from God, we would never recognize such a mission. Like Moses before his call, we would never understand the real purpose of our life on earth. We would live like any other animal: eat, drink, do one selfish thing or another, and die.
As we advance in our Lenten observances, let us recognize that Lent is a grace period to reflect on our lives and seek to understand the aspects of our lives that God is calling each of us to pay closer attention to become holy and ready for every mission He wishes to entrust into our hands. So, instead of wasting our limited time standing in judgment over those whom misfortune has befallen, let’s heed the warning of Paul in the second reading: learn from their misfortune so as not to experience such. More importantly, get ourselves ready to respond to the invitation to humble repentance and good works before our time on earth runs out.