Daily Reflection – Feb 28, 2016
Sunday 28 February 2016
First Reading: Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15
Responsorial Psalm:
The Lord is kind and merciful
Psalm 102(103):1-4, 6-8, 11
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Gospel Reading: Luke 13:1-9
Today’s Note: Third Sunday of Lent
Gospel Reading:
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.’”
Reflection:
The bush, though on fire, was not consumed. (Exodus 3:2)
What a sight this burning bush must have been to Moses! But what exactly was it?
One explanation is that this fire signified God’s desire that everyone worship him alone (Deuteronomy 4:24). He wants to burn away all the other “gods” that we have set up in his place.
Another explanation is that this fire represents God’s judgment against sin. To those who repent, it is a cleansing fire, but to those who turn away, it is a condemning fire. Jesus himself talked about fire this way a few times in his preaching (Matthew 18:8; 25:41). The fact that the fire engulfed the bush but did not burn it away gives us great hope. Our God never gives up!
A third explanation focuses on how God chose an everyday item from the natural world—an ordinary bush—to display his glory. This explanation tells us that God is present everywhere; he works through all events, both big and little, to bring us closer to him. It also points us to the fire of the Holy Spirit, who can transform us—ordinary people—into the image of God (Acts 2:3-4).
Lent is a time when God wants to purify us. It’s a time when he tells us, just as he told Moses and the Israelites, that he wants us to have no false gods before him (Exodus 20:3). To that end, Lent is a perfect time for us to come to the Lord and ask him to burn away our sins through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Lent is also the perfect time for us to invite the fire of the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we—everyday people—can be a source of blessing to the people we meet.
Let’s make it a point this Lent to ask Jesus to send his fire to purify our hearts and empower our lives. Let’s ask him to set us on fire for him and his Church!
“Come, Holy Spirit, and enkindle in me the fire of your love!”
