Weekly Reflection

Sunday, 7 March 2010

3rd Sunday of Lent – God often waits on a person in this or that desert of life

The second book of the Old Testament, Exodus, was written by the same author as was Genesis.

In the 9th Century BC, one of these unknown authors, codenamed Elohist, wrote from various remembrances of the Patriarchs and of Moses, at times repeating what a brother author had written in Genesis, but from a somewhat different angle.

So we have in our first reading (Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15), part of the dramatic story of Moses. Briefly, he had been born a Hebrew but brought up Egyptian, ironically ending up working in Pharaoh’s administration. His Hebrew background providentially caught up with him one day.

On an official visit to the Hebrew slave precinct, he remonstrated with a cruel Egyptian foreman, killing him. The Hebrews didn’t thank him for that. They were punished. Moses was on the run. He fled into the desert. To cut a long story short, he married into a nomadic family, descended from Abraham, led by a priest Jethro, who followed the religious customs of Abraham’s descendants.

God often waits on a person in this or that desert life experience.

During those times, apparently so harsh and empty, God prepares His servant, while heart and generosity remain intact despite circumstances.

So it was that God commissioned Moses to return with wife and son, on a donkey to Egypt, to do battle with Pharaoh over the detention of the Hebrews.

Jesus of Nazareth, 1000 years later, came out of Egypt to do battle with the evil empire, which had enslaved so many good people.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 13: 1-9), we are informed about an incident, a current affair, when locals report to Jesus that Roman soldiers had massacred some Galileans, holding a violent demonstration in the Temple precinct. His audience expected Jesus to call for an immediate and bloody reprisal against the Romans. He refused.

Instead, He challenged the informers to take stock of themselves, and their own attitudes. Once again, and many times thereafter, He refused to accept the role many Jews wanted to thrust on Him. They had long expected a military Messiah. They wanted to know if Jesus was their man and up to the fight.

He, on the other hand, wanted to know if His compatriots were willing and able, to give up their mistaken view of reward and punishment, taught to them relentlessly at home and in the synagogue. These misguided people were brainwashed to expect reward and punishment in their life. They knew precious little of life after death.

Jesus wanted them to know that only God discerns the real good and bad in people.

The parable of the fig tree reinforced His message. God is patient and concedes the time to change, for people willing to convert stubborn attitudes.

Our parishes are called to be learning centres of mercy and forgiveness, not fear and discrimination