Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent - 23 March 2025

THE REMINDER OF OUR MORTALITY

Remember Ash Wednesday, as you received the ashes, the sobering words were: Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return. Sobering words, because they are a stark reminder of the passing of material things and the frailty of our bodies.

By receiving ashes on our foreheads, we said to ourselves and to the world: “One day, this mortal body of mine will be nothing but dust. But until that day, I want to live the purpose for which God has created me, so that I will be more than just dust one day.” Getting our act together, focusing on the things that make for eternal life, inviting and cooperating with the saving work of God in our lives: that’s what conversion is all about.

This serious tone of the call to conversion marks the readings and prayers this Sunday midway through Lent. People tell Jesus about the massacre of certain Galileans by Pontius Pilate while they were in the act of worshipping God and offering sacrifice. Jesus points out that these Galileans were not especially sinful or deserving of this fate. To back this up Jesus reminds them of the eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them. Again, he points out that they were not deserving of the fate that befell them. They were not more sinful than anybody else in Jerusalem at the time.

The point that Jesus was making is that the victims of the Roman brutality and the casualties of the tower’s collapse had all died suddenly and without having the opportunity to repent of their sins and make their peace with God. The message was clear: this could happen to you. Instead of giving an answer to why bad things happen in the world and why people die suddenly and before their time, Jesus teaches us to look at these tragedies not as a punishment, but as a warning. In fact, the real tragedy, the real killer disease, is sin because it separates us from God. As Jesus repeats twice in this passage, ‘Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

THE CALL TO REPENTANCE

What does this mean for us? Doesn’t it suggest that our life is precarious, vulnerable, and without earthly guarantees. There are natural disasters, sickness, and suffering inflicted on human beings through the weaknesses and malice of other people who make evil choices. Like those affected by the brutality of Pilate, and the accident of the collapsing of the tower at Siloam, we also experience suffering that is difficult to explain. Jesus is warning that we are to be especially attentive because of the vulnerability and precariousness of our lives. None of us knows the future. No one can be absolutely guaranteed against some difficulty or suffering.

There is a lesson in this, that this life is not an end in itself. This life is precious and significant and important and necessary as a pilgrimage of growing in love, becoming love. Jesus frequently teaches in the gospel that an over-investment in this life as if it were an end in itself, is short sighted. He calls for repentance so that we can understand and live life according to God's purpose.

The seemingly sombre and solemness of Jesus words of warning are then softened by the touch of mercy as seen in the parable of the fig tree that he tells. The parable speaks of second chances and more time to turn to God, that God gives us in mercy. The fig tree bore no fruit year after year and the owner of the orchard wanted to cut the fig tree down, but the gardener appealed for time to give it special care and nurturing so that it could be given one last chance to bear the fruit that it ought.

The image of the fig tree which is supposed to bear fruit is a symbol of our lives that are meant to be lived according to the purpose of God, the purpose for which we were created. Jesus is the merciful gardener who appeals on our behalf, nurtures, and cares for us so that we may bear fruit.

GOD’S MERCY AND SECOND CHANCES

The year of grace given to the fig tree to produce fruit is a message of God’s patience with us. As St Peter says his second letter, “Think of God’s patience as your opportunity to be saved.” While God’s patience is unlimited, … there is a limit to the time we have, to benefit from God’s patience, a limit which could be brought about by a sudden and unforeseen death, as happened to the Galilean pilgrims and to those crushed by the collapse of the Siloam tower, as Jesus pointed out.

This parable provides us with an appropriate encouragement to review our personal Lenten programme, and to consider whether we have been able to keep up with whatever prayer, penance, or good works we may have resolved, or would have liked, to take on for Lent. If we have slipped in our resolutions, for whatever reason, there is nothing to prevent us from starting again, or starting now.

RENEWING OUT COMMITMENT DURING LENT

So, wherever we may feel we are at this stage of Lent, if we feel that there was more that we might have done, or could have done, the opening prayer, too for this Third Sunday of Lent, is highly appropriate: ‘O God … who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving have shown us a remedy for sin, look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy.’

Let’s not forget that conversion does not consist primarily of things to do, but in the encounter with Jesus and in moving towards him in our hearts, our minds and, therefore, our actions. It is a conversion to the person of Jesus. And our conversion is inspired by and made possible by the patient God who is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy, as we hear in the psalm for today. The only response to the beauty of a God such as ours, is thanksgiving, as the psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all within me, bless his holy name.”

St Paul warns the Corinthians and us not to be like the unfaithful Israelites in the wilderness. We are warned to stay attentive, to be vigilant, and to be careful in working out our salvation. St Paul appears to be concerned that the Corinthians might become complacent in the practice of their faith. This warning, this call to vigilance and attentiveness, is also addressed to us, especially during this Lenten season. We are called to take God’s saving work in our lives seriously.

The Mass is our burning bush experience. Here in this Eucharist, like Moses at Horeb, the mountain of God, we are on holy ground and the Lord is calling us. God proclaims himself to be God of people like you and me, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This Lent falls in a special Jubilee year, a time of grace and restoration. Here in this Mass, and in this season of Lent, and in this Jubilee year of grace, we are called to conversion.