Third Sunday of Lent (C)

Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15
Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12
Lk 13:1-9

Lent: It's not like it was in the "Good Old Days." Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Third Sunday of Lent.

It's true, the Lenten fasting rules are not what they were in the memory and experience of many older Catholics. The emphasis today in our Lenten observance has shifted somewhat. We stress the "baptismal" character of Lent. It's a time when we re-affirm our Christian identity, and support those preparing for Baptism. Repentance is still a Lenten focus, and today those two themes come together in our Scriptures.

Take a cue from St. Paul, who creatively retells the story of the Israelites in the desert, to remind the Corinthians that being baptized means a life of repentance. A Christian is to live differently, to constantly have a spirit of conversion.

It's a theme Jesus picks up in the Gospel, correcting popular notions about why bad things happen to good people. All of us, Jesus says, must be "reform-minded." God doesn't single out anyone by sending tragedies or natural disasters. We all have opportunities—not unlimited, of course—but opportunities nonetheless, to turn from sin and accept God's love. It's what Baptism commits us to do.

Scripture:

•“Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” (Exodus 17:3)

•Strike the rock and the water will flow from it. (Exodus 17:6)

•Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. (Psalm 95:1)

• And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts… (Romans 5:5)

•…only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7)

• “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

Reflection:

•Where is your Egypt? What is your thirst that cannot be quenched?

• Will hope for salvation in a physical thing or place be disappointed? Is it possible for hope in God to be denied?

•Think of water welling up as spring within you. Is this an image of God’s grace, God’s presence within you?

• Compare dying of thirst in the desert with the image of miraculous water welling up within you or with the water that quenches all thirsts.

• Now consider dying for the other instead of dying for thirst and the one who dies for you.

Jesus became a sacrament for me, the cause of my salvation, he brought my time in hell to an end, and put a stop to my inner disintegration. He washed my patiently in the waters of salvation, He filled me with the exhilarating joy of the Holy Spirit in confirmation, he nourished me with the bread of his word. Above all, he forgave me, he forgot everything, he did not even wish me to remember my past self.