* 3rd Lent (C), March 7, 2010
* Theme:  “I Am Who Am”

* Third Sunday in our Lenten Retreat
* Journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem; to suffering, death and new life

* I was struck that this weekend most of us are excited about the presentation of the Oscars.
* Even I am a little excited this year – there are some good movies
* However, what also stuck me is that the awarding of the Oscars is an annual event.
* Today’s liturgy talks about a One Time Award
* Kind of a “Lifetime Achievement Award”
* That we all can win with the help of the Lord
* Let me share some simple reflections with you.

* Even though we consider ourselves modern people we probably still have some outdated notions.
* Maybe we don’t walk under ladders or let a black cat cross our path, for fear of bad luck.
* Maybe those superstitions do not apply to us, but how about this one?
* “God is going to punish you!”
* It is the warning some of us give when we perceive a person doing wrong.
* Some parents even use it as a threat to correct the behavior of their children.
* This is kind of “God the Enforcer.”

* Heck there are a lot of people that I think God should punish on the spot.
* People like:
* Dictators, Oppressors of the poor,
* Financiers who steal people’s life savings
* Child abusers and Human Traffickers
* And people who just bug me.
* But in this life, God does not seem to work that way.

* Ironically, some people seem to go through life prospering and suffering no ill effects for their evil deeds.
* But still, sin does have its consequences, not only in the next life, but in this one.
* You can make up your own list of sin’s consequences on our lives, but here are a few:
* If we are indifferent to the suffering of the poor, then how can our hardened hearts form warm, loving relationships?
* If we lie or inflate the truth to our benefit, then who would trust us enough to share their lives with us?
* If we cheat at work for our own profit and advancement, then what chance do we have of earning the confidence of our co-workers?
* If we solve difficult situations with violent words or abusive actions, then who will want to put energy and time into a friendship or a permanent relationship with us.

* Jesus calls each of us to consider our lives and repent of our sins.
* Often the ill effects of our own blindness are staring us in the face, if we but take a moment to reflect on questions like:
* What is falling apart in our lives?
* Where do we seem bitter and cold as human beings?

* The God of Moses in our first reading claims a name and an identity.
* “I Am Who Am”
* This is not the name of the God of the Philosophers – an impersonal and distant Being.
* This is the God who intervenes powerfully in human history:
* To guide Moses as he leads the people out of slavery
* To nourish them in the desert and quench their thirst with water from “the rock”
* To be visible to us through God’s own Son
* (Cf. Reginald Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary)
* God takes us from the tight and constrained land of sin and its consequences and leads us to the land of forgiveness – a new and spacious life.

* To flesh out the new exodus God is offering us, Jesus proposes a parable.
* The fig tree has thus far been worthless.
* What good is a fruit tree that yields no fruit?
* It has already been given plenty of time to produce; the owner says he has been coming to the tree for three years.
* He has been patient.
* But where our patience would run out the story surprises us.
* More time is given the tree and extra care.
* Doesn’t that boggle our practical and frugal minds?

* We often think of God as the Owner of the Garden
* The one who judges the fig tree for what it has produced
* As I read this Gospel over the course of the week, I saw God more as the Gardener that asks for more time for the fig tree to blossom

* During Lent we have once again been confronted by our sin and our reluctance or inability to change.
* The parable is the nudge of grace. It is the voice, like the one Moses heard, calling us out of our sin-restricted places to a “spacious land.”
* What does forgiveness feel like?
* It feels like the Promise Land, a “land flowing with milk and honey.”

* The time for change is now.
* Like the people at the Siloam tower in the Gospel, we do not know how much time we have.
* However, we do not have to get our act together on our own.
* After all, it’s a gospel parable and the gospel is about grace.
* We have help, if we desire to change.
* We are “cultivated” by a loving gardener who will help us bear the burden of the day and help us taste the fruits of conversion and discipleship.
* (Cf. Jude Siciliano, O.P., at www.judeop.org)

* As we continue with our Liturgy today
* Let us ask the Lord to be patient with us, our church, our country and our world,
* To nurture our best selves, and
* To protect all who are in need of God’s love.

* Amen

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