THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT 25

THIRD SUNDAY LENT, 23 MARCH 2025: HOLY MASS REFLECTION EXODUS 3. 1-8a, 13-15; 1 COR 10. 1-6, 10-12; LUKE 13. 1-9 Focus: Repentance is the soul of the holy lent. It is both the condition and the sign of the true following of the Lord. It also becomes the criterion for God’s judgment 1. “Unless you repent, you will perish”, warns Jesus in today’s gospel. He repeats this twice, in reference to those Galileans killed by Pilate and those killed under the tower in Siloam. Thereby, he makes it clear that all those who commit sin and do not repent will meet a similar fate. Lack of repentance will expose us to God’s judgment. 2. Here the point is not that God judges and punishes us; rather that we must repent and change our lives. So the focus is not punishment and destruction but repentance and saving life. In fact, there is no true discipleship without repentance. 3. Jesus begins his public ministry with the call to “Repent”: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4. 17); “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1. 15). 4. The call for repentance forms the crux of Jesus’ redemptive mission: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5. 32). And there are several strong calls for repentance all through Jesus’ teachings (cf. Lk 11. 32; Lk 10.13; Lk 17. 3-4; Acts 20.21). And today’s warning fits into this context. 5. But what is this repentance? The basic sense is “being sorry, or grieved” for something that has been done. Both the Hebrew term, naham, and the Greek term, metanoia, contain this sense of “feeling sorry” and “regretting”. 6. But it is not just that, and goes further. True repentance is not a mere passing feeling sorry for the wrong. It is not a disturbing sense of remorse. Repentance is not a depressing sense of guilt. Guilt and remorse are negative while true repentance is something positive. 7. True repentance is elevating, relieving, and assuring. True repentance is deep anguish and pain, over a life of inadequacy, offense, and deviation, against God and others. It is a deep stirring within, being touched to the core, and struck with deep anguish over one’s own sinfulness. 8. Repentance is an about-turn of a whole way of living, in determination and dedication. Repentance opens up a radical change of life, both in spirit and in action. Therefore, sincere repentance would mean a “change of mind, change of ways, change of life”. This concretely implies both “turning away from evil” and “turning to God”. 9. This turning to God implies a profound encounter with God as Moses had at a burning bush in Exodus. It is personally experiencing the living God who reveals Himself as “I am who I am”. Our God lives not only because He has existence as His very essence. 10. But He lives in the lives of His people. He intervenes in their lives. He makes them live because He lives. How He is present and acts in the lives of His people is conveyed by some strong and personal verbs that God utters. 11. God declares: I have seen their affliction; I have heard their cry; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them and to lead them to the Promised Land. Therefore, true repentance makes one personally experience this intervening and liberating, and restoring love of God. 12. This personal experience of God forms the foundation for repentance. And a converted life becomes the test and testimony of repentance. In the light of the gospel, this effect is nothing but a fruit-bearing life. If we are truly repentant, then we must become productive and bear abundant fruits. Repentance without fruits will be a contradiction! Direction: Awareness of God’s love, one’s own sinfulness, and a changed fruitful life are the ways and signs of a true repentance