Scripture Reflections for the Third Sunday of Lent

“God calls us, as he calls Moses, to let go of our idols and false securities and risk the adventure of loving, of living lives of mercy and compassion because ‘I am’ will be with us”

"Friends, on this Third Sunday of Lent, we have the privilege of reading one of the most important texts in the Bible: God addressing Moses from the burning bush. In..."

"Our first reading for this Sunday presents us with one of the most famous and commented upon texts in the entire Bible, in which God appears in a burning bush,..."

"Moses sees a bush that burns but is not consumed. This is a lovely symbolic expression of the way God relates to the world. The closer God gets, the more..."

“In examining our lives and repenting for our sins and failings during Lent, we help cultivate the soil of our hearts so that the seeds of God’s love can bear fruit in our lives. Our daily practices and choices help us to remain spiritually healthy, otherwise we can become fruitless, like the fig tree.”

“God does not forget the innocent victim. Injustice and cruelty will not have the last word.”

“The reality is that conversion takes time and a lot of grace. It requires us not only to make up our minds that we want to change, but also for us to be willing to work patiently with God’s help to allow the change to happen.”

“So, since we are in the Lenten season, it may be good to ask ourselves a simple question: as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?”

“To repent is to see the big picture”

“Our practices of self-denial and mortification are ways by which we “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires,” so that we can truly be free to live out those virtues that Scripture identifies as the fruit of the Holy Spirit”

“A devotion to regular daily prayer keeps us grounded and focused, and I know that through persistent prayer, all these other things take care of themselves through Gods grace.”

“We are not to gloat over disasters happening to others, thinking ourselves exempt from the possibility of facing imminent judgement. No, we are to repent, to orientate our lives towards God and live out his mercy.”

“Today do we experience God in the “other” – the person from another ethnic group (tribe)? The person of another color or sex or race or religion? Are we open to meeting Jesus “in disguise,” in an economically poor person; in a person with less education or wealth than we have; and in various outsiders/marginated people in our society?”

“anger is of its nature prone to misdirection. The person we are angry with is often enough not the person we are angry with...anger becomes a way of avoiding guilt. It’s not a search for justice but an avoidance of emotion.”

"Today’s scriptures present stories of two trees: the burning bush, that represents the reality of a soul that is receptive to God’s presence, and the fig tree, which represents God’s..."

"The healthy religious life is lived out between fear and complacency. If the excessive fear of God was a problem years ago, a complacent attitude seems far more pervasive and..."