Third Sunday of Lent Year C
Exodus 3:1–8a, 13–15
Psalm 103:1–2, 3–4, 6–7, 8, 11
1 Corinthians 10:1–6, 10–12
Luke 13:1–9
We are called to union with God. That is the purpose for our earthly life. As the old catechism explained, “God made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.”
In the Lord’s Prayer, we have the petition: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.” All that is presented to us along our journey of faith is to help us to understand Who God is and how He desires to have a living relationship with us.
The Third Sunday of Lent invites us to acknowledge that what is given to us on earth is only a hint of what God wants to share with us.
The encounter between Moses and God in the burning bush is central to understanding the journey of the people of God from bondage to freedom and the whole reality of the life of faith. Moses, who has fled Egypt and apparently has no intention to return, encounters God in the midst of his daily routine as a shepherd of flocks. God calls out to him from nature and turns his world upside down.
When we face the world not as we would like it to be, but as it is, we are confronted with the hard truth that nothing we encounter on earth satisfies. We also learn that God is listening to the cry of our hearts. “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.”
God identifies Himself as the God of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This implies that He is the God Who intends to fulfill His promises. When Moses presses Him for a name, the name given is an enigma. It is written, “YHWH.”
The pronunciation of these letters is a mystery. A scholarly guess that fits Hebrew grammar is to spell it “Yahweh.” The Jews chose not to pronounce it but said instead “Adonai,” or “Lord.” Taking the vowels of this word, some give the form as “Jehovah.” Many now simply say “HaShem,” that is, “the Name.”
However, there is an interesting suggestion that leaves out vowels. Say the word using just the letters given. Do you understand? It is your very breath, breathing out (YH) and breathing in (WH). At a moment that will come for all of us, we will breathe out, but then God will keep the breath for Himself.
The humbling realization that God is longing to enter our world, that He understands our suffering, allows us to see all suffering in a different light. As Jesus points out to the disciples who speak of the death of some Galileans due to the cruelty of a political tyrant, suffering is part of life, and it comes without reference to the guilt or innocence of those who experience it.
We can all acknowledge that, at the present time, those who are suffering in Ukraine do not deserve to suffer in this way, any more than those who suffer because of natural disasters.
We are called to allow God to breathe in us. We, too, should witness, that is, see clearly, the affliction of many. We can hear the cry of hearts and respond, committing our lives to be instruments of freedom, healing and love. We can imitate the Lord in being kind and merciful.
Alternate Readings for the First Scrutiny, Third Sunday of Lent Year A:
Exodus 17:3-7
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-42
Year A readings, used at Masses when the First Scrutiny is prayed over the members of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, invite us to pay attention to our own thirsts. We can become witnesses to the fulfillment of the promises of old as we seek “living water” from the One Who reveals Himself to us.