March 7: Study and Meditations on the Scripture Readings for This Coming Sunday's Mass

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Biblical Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Lent by Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

Standing on Holy Ground

Today’s first reading from Exodus (3:1-8a; 13-15) carried me back to my first visit to Mount Sinai and St. Catharine’s Monastery in 1990, during my years of study in Jerusalem. I remember well that awesome experience of standing on “holy ground” in Sinai, at the place where God gave humanity his Law, the Ten Commandments of the Covenant.

I also recall the moving words of Pope John Paul II spoken at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai on Feb. 26, 2000, during his historic Jubilee Pilgrimage to the places of our salvation: "How many have come to this place before us! Here the People of God pitched their tents (cf. Exodus 19:2); here the prophet Elijah took refuge in a cave (cf. 1 Kings 19:9); here the body of the martyr Catherine found a final resting-place; here a host of pilgrims through the ages have scaled what Saint Gregory of Nyssa called ‘the mountain of desire’ (The Life of Moses, II, 232); here generations of monks have watched and prayed.

“We humbly follow in their footsteps, to ‘the holy ground’ where the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob commissioned Moses to set his people free (cf. Exodus 3:5-8).”

In today’s well-known passage from the book of Exodus Chapter 3, the image of “holy ground” is vivid. For centuries, spiritual writers have contemplated the deep significance of holy ground and holy places. The whole area of the Sinai, with its rugged, natural beauty and the ancient monastery still standing at the foot of God’s holy mountain, are silent witnesses to God’s entrance into human history.

**Moses, Moses **

In today’s first reading, Moses is simply “minding his business” keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, when he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1ff). Horeb has this special designation probably because of the divine apparitions that took place there, as well as the place where the Israelites sojourned after the departure from Egypt.

The angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, he called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” Moses, fearful, shocked and amazed, became aware that someone who knows him must be here, someone who is truly interested in him. And Moses said, “Here I am.” Then the Lord said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5).

Moses hears his name called out twice: “Moses, Moses!” In the Bible it is rare for a person to be called twice. In the book of Genesis (22:1), Abraham is summoned to sacrifice his son. “Abraham, Abraham!” It is a major turning point in his life. His own sincerity was put to the test. Another instance of a double name calling is in 1 Samuel 3:10 “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” The confusing period of the Judges is ending and the time of the kings, which marks a new nearness of God to his people, is beginning.

Moses tried to consider the phenomenon of the burning bush as a part of his view of God, of history, and of God’s presence in history. But the Lord’s strong words to Moses from the bush are a warning, as if Moses were being told: “Moses, you are not going to come to me by enclosing me into your personal scheme of things. You are not the one to integrate me into your personal plans. Instead, I want to fit you into my master plan!” No one of us waltzes into availability to the mystery of God. It is the Lord God who seeks Moses …] where he happens to be. The Lord does the same with each of us.

Time and place

We must never forget that while God revealed himself to Moses in a particular place and through a particular fashion, this does not limit God, to those places and ways. Our human tendency to limit this God to certain times, places and peoples will be lessened to the degree that we understand the absolute sovereignty of God.

The presence of God and the power of Jesus cannot be limited to mere places. Let us recognize God’s great ability to break through our distances, structures, borders and rules in order to speak to us wherever we are the words once spoken to Moses: “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

**True rock **

The Old Testament typology of desert, rock and water is very evident in today’s second reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (10:1-6, 10-12). St. Paul writes: “All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.”

Paul refers to a spiritual rock that followed the people. The Torah speaks only about a rock from which water issued, but rabbinic legend amplified this into a spring that followed the Israelites throughout their migration. Paul uses this legend as a literary type: He makes the rock itself accompany the Israelites, and he gives it a spiritual sense. The rock was Christ.

In the Old Testament, the Lord God is the Rock of his people (Moses’ song to the Lord, the Rock in Deut 32). Paul now applies this image to the Christ, the source of the living water, the true Rock that accompanied Israel, guiding their experiences in the desert.

**Destiny of all God’s people **

Let us ponder words of Pope John Paul II spoken ten years ago at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai during his Jubilee Pilgrimage in February 2000:

"Here on Mount Sinai, the truth of ‘who God is’ became the foundation and guarantee of the Covenant. Moses enters ‘the luminous darkness’ (The Life of Moses, II, 164), and there he is given the Law ‘written with the finger of God’ (Exodus 31:18). But what is this Law? It is the Law of life and freedom! At the Red Sea, the people had experienced a great liberation. They had seen the power and fidelity of God; they had discovered that he is the God who does indeed set his people free as he had promised. But now on the heights of Sinai, this same God seals his love by making the Covenant that he will never renounce. If the people obey his Law, they will know freedom forever. The Exodus and the Covenant are not just events of the past; they are forever the destiny of all God’s people!

"The Ten Commandments are not an arbitrary imposition of a tyrannical Lord. They were written in stone; but before that, they were written on the human heart as the universal moral law, valid in every time and place. Today as always, the Ten Words of the Law provide the only true basis for the lives of individuals, societies and nations. Today as always, they are the only future of the human family. They save man from the destructive force of egoism, hatred and falsehood. They point out all the false gods that draw him into slavery: the love of self to the exclusion of God, the greed for power and pleasure that overturns the order of justice and degrades our human dignity and that of our neighbor. If we turn from these false idols and follow the God who sets his people free and remains always with them, then we shall emerge like Moses, after forty days on the mountain, ‘shining with glory’ (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, II, 230), ablaze with the light of God!

“To keep the Commandments is be faithful to God, but it is also to be faithful to ourselves, to our true nature and our deepest aspirations. The wind which still today blows from Sinai reminds us that God wants to be honored in and through the growth of his creatures: ‘Gloria Dei, homo vivens.’ In this sense, that wind carries an insistent invitation to dialogue between the followers of the great monotheistic religions in their service of the human family. It suggests that in God we can find the point of our encounter: In God the All Powerful and All Merciful, Creator of the universe and Lord of history, who at the end of our earthly existence will judge us with perfect justice.”

**Liberating obedience **

On this Third Sunday of Lent, the lessons of Sinai are clear for us: We too shall be truly free if we learn to obey as Jesus did. The encounter of God and Moses on Mount Horeb in the Sinai enshrines at the heart of our religion the mystery of the liberating obedience, which finds its fulfillment in the perfect obedience of Christ, by his birth in Bethlehem and his crucifixion in Jerusalem.

 

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A reflection by Brian Pizzalato on Emmaus Road:

On the Third Sunday of Lent, the Church provides us with some amazing readings. When we look at them together, they lead us towards repentance.

The first reading, taken from the book of Exodus, recounts Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. God call Moses while he is shepherding in the land of Midian and tells him to go back to Egypt in order to set God’s people free. God then reveals to Moses his most holy name, “I AM.” God goes on to command Moses to tell the people that He is the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In other words, Moses must remind the people that He is the God who has remained, and who will continue to remain, faithful to the covenants He swore to those three patriarchs.

In the second reading from his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul reminds his readers what happened after Moses responded to God’s call. They “all passed through the sea,” and, while in the desert, drank from the spiritual rock. They were delivered from bondage and given provision for their journey. Paul emphasizes that God remained faithful to his covenant.

However, St. Paul also reminds his readers of the people’s response to the Lord. They grumbled because of their slavery to the Egyptians. But they also grumbled against the Lord, as though he were also trying to enslave and kill them. Because they did not repent, they were “struck down in the desert.”

In the Gospel reading, taken from St. Luke, the theme of repentance is continued. Luke Timothy John notes in his commentary, The Gospel of Luke: “Luke has Jesus respond to these reports of death in the city in classic prophetic style; they are turned to warning examples for his listeners. The people who died were not more deserving of death than others. One cannot argue from sudden and violent death to the enormity of sin. Indeed, Jesus himself will suffer a death that appears to be as much a punishment for sin. But the prophet’s point is that death itself, with the judgment of God, is always so close. It can happen when engaged in ritual. It can happen standing under a wall. And when it happens so suddenly, there is no time to repent. Rabbi Eliezer had declared that a person should repent the day before death. But his disciples said that a person could die any day, therefore all of life should be one of repentance. The repentance called for by the prophet Jesus, of course, is not simply a turning from sin but an acceptance of the visitation of God in the proclamation of God’s kingdom” (p. 213).

During this Lenten season we are called to repent with a contrite heart. Let us seek out the sacrament of mercy. Thus, we will be able to hear the glorious words of Christ on the lips of a priest, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

 

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A reflection and questions for meditation from the Dong Hanh website:

**3rd Sunday of Lent
Reading I: Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 II: 1Cor 10:1-6,10-12​

Gospel
Luke 13:1-9**

*1 There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?
3 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo’am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’
8 And he answered him, ‘Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure.
9 And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” *

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Interesting Details **

(vv.1-5) Luke alone records these incidents. In this highly politically charged atmosphere of Roman-occupied Palestine, Jesus faces yet another trap. If He ignores this event, He will be accused of insensivity to His people. But if He criticizes Pilate, He will probably be reported to the Roman authorities and be punished by them.

The fig tree would have three years to grow after planting. From then, the tree bears fruit ten months out of the year, and so one can reasonably expect to find fruit at almost any time. The fruit of the next three years is considered forbidden (Lev 19:23). The fruit of the seventh year is considered clean and ought to be offered to the Lord (Lev 19:24). The owner in this parable has come seeking fruit for three years, hence it is nine years since planting, and yet it is still barren.

The parable is not about trees but about the nation’s leadership: the scribes and the chief priests. They (= the fig trees) are stealing life from the people (= the vineyard; Isa. 5:7). Jesus accuses them as fruitless and should be rooted out. Later, in 20:19, they understand that the vineyard parables are directed to them.

Luke’s approach of the fig tree stories is particularly interesting. Unlike Matthew & Mark which relate an encounter between Jesus and a fig tree bearing no fruit. But in Luke, the fig tree is allowed to have more time; indeed, it has already had its time.

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One Main Point

What took place in Galilee and at Siloam were not judgments of God. But a severe judgment lies ahead for another place, Jerusalem, where God established a dwelling place among the chosen people.

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Reflections **

Am I so often focused on the evils to be uprooted that I neglect the need for personal reform as well?

If I learned that I will die tomorrow, what is the one thing that I would have done differently? How hard would it be for me to do that every day?

 

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Finally, a reflection from Presentation Ministries:

**FRUITFUL HUMILITY **

*“Perhaps it will bear fruit. If not, it shall be cut down.” *—Luke 13:9

Jesus commands us to bear fruit, that is, to lead people to Him. If we don’t go and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19), we will suffer a tragic end (Lk 13:3, 5), be cut down (Lk 13:9), and thrown into the eternal fire of hell (see Jn 15:6). Jesus insists on our bearing fruit not to be harsh with us, but because He wants all “to be saved and come to know the truth” (1 Tm 2:4). Because of His love for all people, Jesus must insist that those who know Him proclaim His crucified love to suffering humanity.

Despite the necessity and urgency of leading others to Christ, many Christians are still reluctant to obey the Lord. We need to do what Moses did when he met God in the burning bush. We must take off our shoes, that is, humble ourselves (Ex 3:5). A humble person will not disobey God. A humble person will not question God’s callings, His timing, and the feasibility of His plans. A humble person will go and tell the good news. Possibly the greatest “evangelist” of our times was Mother Teresa. She was not exceptionally articulate or brilliant, but she was humble. Moreover, St. Francis of Assisi was one of the greatest evangelists in the history of the Church because he was humble.

Let’s learn from Jesus, Who is gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). When we humble ourselves (Mt 23:12), we will find that the humble are the fruitful.

Prayer: Father, may the catechumens who had the “First Scrutiny” today inspire us to let You scrutinize and purify our hearts.
Promise: “Let anyone who thinks he is standing upright watch out lest he fall!” —1 Cor 10:12
Praise: Praise Jesus, Who humbly descended to the dead to preach the Good News (Catechism, 632; 1 Pt 3:18-19; Eph 4:9-10).

 

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:tiphat:
Thanks to all who followed this thread to the end. I hope this Lenten series is helpful and uplifting for you, and if you have any additional meditations or positive and holy thoughts on the Sunday readings to add, please feel free to do so. See you on next week’s thread.

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