Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent
By Scott Wright and Jean Stokan
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15 ~ Psalm 103 ~ 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 ~ Luke 13:1-9
Take Off Your Shoes, For The Place That You Stand is Holy Ground
Today’s readings begin with that great story from Exodus, when God tells Moses: “I have seen the misery of my people. . . . I have heard their cry. . . . I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them” (3:7-8). It is the great story of liberation, the call of Moses to lead his people out of slavery into the Promised Land overflowing with milk and honey. A story that gives hope today to people in bondage: Yes, God knows our sufferings; yes, God will come down to deliver us!
Yet there is more to this story than a message of liberation. In fact, the story is really about conversion, preparing ourselves for a mission, receiving God’s call to us at this moment of our lives: “Take off your shoes, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).
Where do we find holy ground today? We do not have to look very far. Jon Sobrino reminded people at the end of the bloody war in El Salvador that the entire country was holy ground, because “wherever great suffering and great love converge, we are standing on holy ground.”
Archbishop Romero spoke of Lent as “that difficult complex of cross and victory.” The road to resurrection passes through the way of the cross: “Just as Christ will flourish in an Easter of unending resurrection, so it is necessary also to accompany Him in Lent, in a Holy Week that is cross, sacrifice, martyrdom.”
In today’s Gospel, the parable of the barren fig tree also speaks to us of conversion. Here the image is not taken from history, but from nature: bearing fruit.
We know already the goal to which we are called. When we plant the seed and till the soil, we can already imagine the flower and the fruit that will soon emerge. But the fruit is not only that which comes at the end; it is already present, hidden in the seed and in our humble efforts to nurture the seed to fruition.
So, too, the resurrection is not only that which comes at the end of the way of the cross; rather, we are called to live as resurrected beings in the midst of the world’s crosses. We are called to accompany those who are poor or strangers in our midst, those who are sick or in prison, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, Christ hidden as our sister and brother in those who are poor. And we are called, too, to take down from the cross those who are crucified in today’s world.
“The great need today is for Christians who are active and critical, who don’t accept situations without analyzing them inwardly and deeply. We no longer want masses of people like those who have been trifled with for so long. We want persons like fruitful fig trees who can say yes to justice and no to injustice and can make use of the precious gift of life, regardless of the circumstances.” -–Archbishop Oscar Romero
