March 20
Third Sunday of Lent
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
Sat., 4:00 PM – Roxanne McAloon Compoli / Rachaelle Warroner
Sun., 7:30 AM - Michael Ferrante / Mr. & Mrs. John Andaloro
Sun., 10:30 AM - Genevieve Walker-Falso / Bill & Sandy Walker
Sun., 5:00 PM - Rod & Nanette Groat / Hall Groat Family
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”
When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But the LORD said, “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. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you 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; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11.
R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.
These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.
Gospel Acclamation
Matthew 4:17
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Repent, says the Lord;
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Gospel
Luke 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not 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? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So 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 Lord is kind and merciful.”
Reflection
Exodus Chapter 3 (our first reading today) offers us a remarkable gift. While we are usually familiar with this story, we can easily take for granted its implications. Moses encounters the Lord who speaks to him through the burning bush—a bush out in the wilderness that is engulfed in flames, yet the bush remains unharmed, unburned. It is from this encounter that the Lord sends Moses to be his instrument of liberation for His enslaved and oppressed people in Egypt. Also in this fascinating passage, Moses asks the Lord for his name—and the Lord responds! He allows himself to be known by name!
“By revealing his Name,” Pope Benedict XVI says, “God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He enables us to invoke him, he enters into relations with us and gives us the possibility of being in a relationship with him. This means that God gives himself, in a certain way, to our human world, becoming accessible, as if he were one of us. He faces the risk of the relationship, of being with us. What began in the burning bush in the desert is accomplished in the burning bush of the Cross where God, having become accessible in his Son made man, really became one of us, is put into our hands and, in this way, realizes the liberation of humanity. On Golgotha, God, who during the night of the flight from Egypt revealed himself as the One who frees us from slavery, revealed himself as the One who embraces every human being with the saving power of the Cross and the Resurrection and liberates him from sin and death, accepts him in the embrace of his love.”
Ultimately what we gain from the Pope’s thoughtful reflection is that God—who is all powerful—chose to humbly enter into our existence in a way that doesn’t crush or destroy us, but rather comes within us and among us. He illumines us and as a result his light can shine through us. Like the burning bush, God sets us aflame in a manner that doesn’t leave us burned but rather makes us fully alive!
He willingly takes on the risk of being connected to us knowing full well of our ability to let him down. Yet, the question before us remains, do we still see the Lord somehow as being in competition with us? That in order for us to give of ourselves to Him, that we somehow have to lose? Or rather, are you able to be a burning bush at his service that results in you becoming more alive than ever because of his life radiating in you? Food for thought!
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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