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Third Sunday of Lent (C)

March 23, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Collect

O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness,
who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving
have shown us a remedy for sin,
look graciously on this confession of our lowliness,
that we, who are bowed down by our conscience,
may always be lifted up by your mercy.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Ex 3:1-8a,13-15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; Moses looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 Then God said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 God said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” 13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.”

Responsorial Psalm 103:1-2,3-4,6-7,8,11

R/. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Second Reading 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud; all passed through the sea; 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of our ancestors, and they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 10 And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to our ancestors to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

Verse Before the Gospel Mt 4:17

Gospel Lk 13:1-9

Jesus was teaching the crowds; some of those present told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them— do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” 6 Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Catena Nova

“It is my Father’s glory,” Christ said, “that you should bear abundant fruit and become my disciples.” But even when we have glorified the Father by bearing much fruit and becoming Christ’s disciples, we still have no right to claim the credit for it as though the work were ours alone. The grace to carry out the work had first to come to us from God, and so the glory is his, not ours.... This, then, is the Father’s glory, that we should bear abundant fruit and become Christ’s disciples, since it is only through God’s mercy in the first place that we can become the disciples of Christ.... Yet even when we do keep God’s commandments, it is not something we do in order to make God love us, for unless he loved us first we should not be able to keep them. It is the gift of his grace, a grace which is accessible to the humble of heart, but beyond the reach of the proud. (St. Augustine of Hippo)

When shall it be that we shall taste the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our good? When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can?(St. Jane Frances de Chantal)

Those who have abandoned themselves to God always lead mysterious lives and receive from God exceptional and miraculous gifts by means of the most ordinary, natural and chance experiences in which there appears to be nothing unusual. The simplest sermon, the most banal conversations, the least erudite books become the source of knowledge and wisdom to these souls by virtue of God’s purpose. This is why they carefully pick up the crumbs which clever minds tread underfoot, for to them everything is precious and a source of enrichment. (Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God's all-seeing eyes. And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me. (St. Edith Stein/Benedicta of the Cross)

Why should you worry whether God wants you to reach the heavenly home by way of the desert or by the fields, when by the one as well as by the other one arrives all the same at a Blessed Eternity? Keep far from you excessive preoccupation which arises from the trials which the good God wishes to visit upon you. (St. Pio of Pietrelcina)

We react to bad news as to a form of emotional blackmail, obliging us to “feel” for the victims, and be outraged by someone who doesn’t appear to feel. But not Jesus. His attention is entirely concentrated on his interlocutors. It is not the events themselves which concern him, but their reaction to the events, and what that reaction says about whose power they are in. We can imagine the excitement of those telling him, wanting a pronouncement of appropriately apocalyptic tenor: the Galileans were not sacrificing at Jerusalem, probably at Gerizim. Maybe this was their punishment from God. But they are disappointed. Jesus completely de-sacralizes the event, removing any link between God and what has happened. Any link between morality and what has happened. If we are caught up in thinking like that, then we too are likely to act in ways moved by the apocalyptic other, the god of blood and sacrifice and murder, of morality linked to worldly outcome, and we will perish like them. To ram home his point, he chooses an example where there was no obvious moral agency, no wicked Pilate, no sacrifices of dubious validity: the collapse of a tower — maybe an architectural flaw, maybe a small earth tremor, the shifting of an underground stream, who knows. Once again, Jesus completely de-sacralizes the incident. It has nothing to do with God. But if we are caught up in the world of giving sacred meanings, then we will be caught up in the world of reciprocal violence, of good and bad measured over against other people, and we will likewise perish. Once again I stress: Jesus will not be drawn into adding to meaning. He merely asks those who come to him themselves to move out of the world of sacred-seeming meaning. What does it mean for us to learn to look at the world through those eyes? (James Alison)

During the time of Lent, the Lord invites us to convert. Each of us must feel addressed by this call, and correct something in our lives, in our way of thinking, of behaving and of living our relationships with others. At the same time, we must imitate the patience of God who trusts in everyone’s ability to “rise again” and to continue the journey. God is Father and does not extinguish the weak flame, but rather, accompanies and cares for those who are weak so that they may gain strength and bring their contribution of love to the community. (Pope Francis)

Homily

Before Covid there was AIDS. As the world observes — some might say, forgets — the fifth anniversary of the lockdowns that turned our lives upside down and, sadly, ended all too many of them, I am reminded of the earlier virus that did much the same to so many. And like Covid, AIDS also seems to many like a forgotten nightmare. But it's not. Despite advances in drugs that can make an infected person's viral-load undetectable, 630,000 people died from the disease globally in 2023 and over 42 million have died from the pandemic since its inception. That's compared to just over 7 million reported deaths worldwide from COVID-19 — over 1 million of them in the United States. In the last month 2,800 reported people died of Covid globally — a 60% decrease from the previous month, though 2,500 of them were in the USA. Seems like we have a long way to go to Make America Healthy Again. Tragic as that is, medical missionary on how much AIDS continues to kill on the African continent, worsened by the recent suspension of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) as part of the administrations's freezing of all foreign aid (cf. Matthew Loftus, "This Lent, I'm fasting to focus my prayers on people living with AIDS," America; March 18, 2025). Seems like we no longer care about making Africa — or anywhere else for that matter — healthy again either. But just so our national tendency to amnesia doesn't make us forget "that other epidemic" I would like to remember Jim.

The look of death was about him. As I knocked at the door of his mother’s house, I wondered what I would find. It was the first time I came face to face with a man dying from AIDS. I had no idea what to say or do. I had a sinking feeling whatever I said or did would somehow be wrong. And I would rather have been anyplace else than on Jim’s doorstep.

Funny thing was, I soon realized we shared the same fears. See, Jim had never seen a priest up close, any more than I had a person with AIDS. Though his mother was Catholic, Jim was never baptized. He never thought of becoming one either. Since he was gay, he thought he was going to hell anyway. So why bother with church? But now that he was facing death, some things were bothering him.

Like whether God was punishing him for being gay. Whether he could possibly be saved. And whether the church would even consider baptizing him. Of course, my own worst fears came to pass. In a feeble attempt to respond, I got all tongue-twisted, lost in a thicket of theology, painfully aware I was losing him faster than I was myself.

If only Jesus’ words had come to me quicker than the abstractions I was spouting: Do you think that these Galileans [whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices] were the greatest sinners in Galilee just because they suffered this? By no means!. . . . Or take those eighteen who were killed by a falling tower in Siloam. Do you think they were more guilty than anyone else who lived in Jerusalem? Certainly not! (G) Oh yes, if only those words came to mind, as I sat there with a man who thought he was dying because he sinned greater than I do.

And therein lies the problem. Like the victims of those disasters from the headlines of Jesus’ time, there is no direct connection between our sins and our suffering. Paul, for example, says that God was not pleased with most of the people in the desert -- suggesting there were some who did not rebel -- yet they too shared in affliction. And that God gave the same food and drink -- the manna and water from the rock-- to all in the desert, the good and bad alike; and they all passed through the sea out of Egypt (II). So the innocent suffered along with the guilty, and the guilty escaped, making the "blame game" all the harder to play, much less win.

So we are left, I think, with that parable about the fig tree Jesus told. After years of bearing no fruit, its owner was ready to cut it down. But the vinedresser urged him to give it another chance, a little more time. As God did with Moses himself. For you do know, don't you, why he was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro out there in the desert? (I) Because he killed an Egyptian some years before and had to get out of the country. Yes, that’s right, the man whom God chose to lead the Israelites from slavery, to whom God appeared in the burning bush, who was the first to know God’s name, that man Moses once upon a time was a murderer! But I assume by the time he was called, God saw a lot of good fruit Moses would bear, even if there were some barren years.

So once again, there's little if any connection between our virtues, or lack thereof, and the events of our lives, good or bad though they be. No one is suffering in Ukraine because of their sins and no one who survives can credit their virtues. The evil of the war is due to one man’s — and only one man's — decision. The people killed in the United States recently due to weather disasters were not being punished by God — though the inaction of politicians in the face of climate change due to human activity certainly share some blame. And the victims of Covid-19 and of AIDS are not to blame for their demise. A virus is — though the purveyors of disinformation and the dithering of politicians bear a heavy responsibility for the death toll. Just as that tower which fell in Siloam because of faulty construction was likely due to a crooked contractor, and those Galileans who died were victims of Pilate’s cruelty. Period.

By the way, Jim was baptized before he died. He left this world believing in a merciful and gracious Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness (RP). He also died eating and drinking the same spiritual food and drink we’ve come here to share. And it all came about because his mother happened to be in church one Sunday when a homily was preached about a woman who was turned away from one church when she got AIDS but found welcome in another. That sermon gave Jim’s mother the courage to call a priest and ask him to visit her son. Which is why Paul’s words are so important to any who like to play "pin the blame" the way Jim once did, namely: Let anyone who thinks he is standing upright watch out lest he fall! (II)

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that the Holy Spirit will nurture and renew us so that we may bear the abundant fruits of virtue and vibrant discipleship.

For the gift of awe: that we may reverence the holy ground on which we stand, the many blessings that we have received, our bonds of friendship, and our community of faith.

For all who are experiencing affliction, particularly in Ukraine, Gaza and Congo: that God will hear their cries, relieve their sufferings, and give them strength to remain faithful.

For refugees and displaced persons: that God will guide them to places of safety, provide the resources that they need, and help them to be welcomed and supported.

For greater stewardship of creation: that we may fulfill God’s commission to care for the earth, water, and air that God has created for the good of all the human family.

For all who are ill: that the Spirit will renew the gift of life in all who are sick, give them strength to recover quickly, and guide their healthcare providers in making accurate diagnoses.

For all who are homeless: that God will open resources for them to find affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, and helpful neighbors.

For all government leaders: that God will help them hear the cries of those who are suffering, inspire them with new insights to address the needs, and be moved to actions.

For an end to war and violence: that God will send an angel to challenge those who are using violence, open new opportunities for dialogue between conflicting parties, and help them find ways that will benefit all people with better lives.

God of salvation,
we stand before you on holy ground,
for your name is glorified
and your mercy revealed
wherever your mighty deeds are remembered.
Since you are holy and forbearing,
turn us from every rash and shallow judgement
to seek the ways of repentance.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Antiphon

Offertory Anthem (Boyce)

Turn Thee unto me, O Lord: O Lord, have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and in misery. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my troubles. Look upon my adversity: and forgive me all my sin. O keep my soul and deliver me: let me not be confounded, for I have put my trust in Thee.

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