Third Sunday of Lent
Reflection on Scripture
We are all baptized into the Lord and in our Baptism, we turn away from our evil nature, created through the sin of Adam, and seek the Lord who is good and merciful. The harsh realization of our time is that people have grown indifferent to the presence of God and they pursue their desires for pleasures of the world, all the while mocking the God of all kindness.
The fig tree did not bear fruit, and the landowner was ready to cut it down. The gardener said to the landowner, please let me fertilize it and work the ground for it may still bear fruit. The landowner is God the Father, and the gardener is Jesus. The evil in our world appears to have won the victory, but that is only because of God’s kindness. A day will come when we all need to be held accountable for our sins.
Today, the Lord calls us to repentance once again as a sign of His kindness and His mercy and through the advocacy of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. But God is also a just God.
People often ask, why would God allow suffering to come into the world especially when supposedly innocent people have to suffer also.
But none of us are innocent. We are all guilty of sin and our sins do not harm only us, but our sins do harm to the human race as a whole.
When God loved everything into existence, there was a harmony throughout all of creation. The harmony was shattered through original sin. As our world becomes more and more entrenched in sin, even nature rebels and gives us signs through natural disasters and a disruption even in the seasons of the year.
We need to look at the signs all around us. Is our world giving honor and glory to God’s holy name? Our world is consumed by greed, hatred, division. We try to ease our pain through drugs, alcohol, and anything that comforts the senses but leaves us empty and dry in body, mind, and spirit.
Today, turn back to the Lord with all your might, and all your strength, and with all your heart. Let Him enter and find a place to dwell. Allow Him the freedom to reshape us into the very likeness of His Son. After we do all these things, we become aware that we are not worthy of any gifts from God , especially, to His kingdom. All our labors are in vain if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify our lives and our prayer.
When God revealed His name to Moses, I Am, He also showed us that He has dominion over all creation and our only way into the kingdom is to repent, throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Lord, and patiently await Hid kindness and mercy and the day when He calls forth a new heaven and a new earth.
Deacon Phil