Texts taken from the missal “On Your Word,” March-April 2025
3rd Sunday of Lent (C)
3rd week of the psalter
FIRST READING
From the Book of Exodus (Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15)
In those days, while Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, he led the livestock beyond the desert and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold: the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Moses thought: “I will go closer to observe this great sight: why does the bush not burn?” The Lord saw that he had gone closer to look; God called to him from the bush: “Moses, Moses!” He answered: “Here I am!” He continued: “Do not come any closer! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground!” And he said: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Moses then covered his face, because he was afraid to look toward God. The Lord said: “I have witnessed the misery of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters: I know their sufferings. I have come down to deliver them from the power of Egypt and to bring them up from this land to a beautiful and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” Moses said to God: “Here I am, I am going to the Israelites and saying to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ They will ask me: ‘What is his name?’ And what shall I answer them?” God said to Moses: “I am who I am!” And he added: “Thus you shall say to the Israelites: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” God said again to Moses: “You shall say to the Israelites: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is the title by which I shall be remembered from generation to generation.” – The word of God.
Commentary on the first reading
Last Sunday the liturgy presented us with the figure of Abraham; today, that of Moses. Seeing that the bush was burning with fire but was not being consumed, he decided to draw near, and «God called to him from the bush: “Moses, Moses!”. He answered: “Here I am!”. He continued: “Do not come any closer! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground!”». Moses is chosen and called by God, but one approaches Him by removing the sandals of arrogance and pride; there is an invitation not to get carried away with oneself and to keep one’s feet on the ground. For what matters is to listen: «I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham… of Isaac… of Jacob». In these few words we see that God builds bonds of relationship with His friends and gives them His attention: He has heard the cry of the people and knows their sufferings: «I have come down to set him free from the power of Egypt». God is the faithful and ever-present God, and His people, faced with His faithfulness, can only respond with the words of the psalm: «Bless the Lord, my soul… He forgives all your faults… He has made His ways known to Moses».
SECOND READING
From the First Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (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, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank from a spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Yet most of them were not pleasing to God, and therefore they were struck down in the wilderness. These things happened as an example for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble, as some of them did, and they fell victim to the destroyer. All these things happened to them as an example, and they were written down as a warning for us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing must be careful not to fall. – The word of the Lord.
Commentary on the second reading
The community is faced with the question of whether or not it is permissible to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Paul declares that people are free to do as they think best, and the only restraint they are called to impose on themselves is charity: avoiding causing scandal to the least and weakest (in the preceding chapters). In today’s text, he urges the members of the community not to place themselves above others, but to show respect, and he does so by recalling the experience of the exodus itself, during which God showed concern for everyone, yet each person responded differently: “All ate the same spiritual food... But most of them were not pleasing to God, and therefore they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things... Do not grumble.” Along the journey of life’s exodus, the Lord does not fail to provide his help and providence, but no one should think of using God’s benevolence to humiliate their neighbor. It was true yesterday; it is true for us today.
GOSPEL
From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:1-9)
At that time, some people came to tell Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered this fate they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” And he told them this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. Cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.’” - The Word of the Lord.
Gospel Commentary
We have reached the third Sunday, the third stage of our Lenten journey. We were reminded that we are fragile and weak (Ash Wednesday); that choosing God entails a continual struggle that we can win only by standing firm in the word of God (First Sunday, the temptations); a struggle whose horizon is a truer, more beautiful life (Second Sunday, the Transfiguration). But this goal is possible only insofar as we accept the need for conversion. In Jesus’ time, there was a massacre ordered by Pilate, and the blood of the Galileans mingled with that of the sacrificed lambs: “Do you think that those Galileans were greater sinners than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.” Starting from this historical event, Jesus invites us not so much to seek who is responsible as to learn to let ourselves be challenged with the eyes of faith, because everything can become an opportunity to change, to undergo conversion. Every moment of life is like an oyster containing a precious pearl: this is the spirit in which to live our Lenten journey, learning to listen attentively to every moment of life. The more we learn to listen to him within the events of life, the more we will feel his companionship and, even now, savor a transfigured life.
