3rd Sunday of Lent

Moses pastured the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian. One day he led

the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God. The

Angel of Yahweh appeared to him by means of a flame of fire in the middle of a bush.

Moses saw that although the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Moses thought, "I will

go and see this amazing sight, why is the bush not burning up?" Yahweh saw that

Moses was drawing near to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush,

"Moses! Moses!" He replied, "Here I am." Yahweh said to him, "Do not come near;

take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground." And

God continued, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac

and the God of Jacob. "Moses hid his face lest his eyes look on God. Yahweh said, "I

have seen the humiliation of my people in Egypt and I hear their cry when they are

cruelly treated by their taskmasters. I know their suffering. I have come down to free

them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a

beautiful spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the

Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Moses answered God, "If I go to the Israelites and say to them: 'The God of your

fathers has sent me to you,' they will ask me: 'What is his name?' What shall I answer

them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO AM. This is what you will say to the sons of

Israel: 'I AM sent me to you” God then said to Moses, "You will say to the Israelites:

'YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the

God of Jacob, has sent me.' That will be my name forever, and by this name they shall

call upon me for all generations to come.

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about our ancestors. All of them were under

the cloud and all crossed the sea. All underwent the baptism of the land and of the sea

to join Moses and all of them ate from the same spiritual manna and all of them

drank from the same spiritual drink. For you know that they drank from a spiritual

rock following them, and the rock was Christ. However, most of them did not please

God, and the desert was strewn with their bodies. All of this happened as an example

for us, so that we might not become people of evil desires, as they did. Nor grumble as

some of them did and were cut down by the destroying angel. These things happened

to them as an example, and they were written as a warning for us, as the last times

come upon us. Therefore, if you think you stand, beware, lest you fall.

One day some persons told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple: Pilate had

Galileans killed and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus

replied, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other

Galileans because they suffered this? I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways,

you will all perish as they did. And those eighteen persons in Siloah who were crushed

when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in

Jerusalem? I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they

did." And Jesus continued with this story, "A man had a fig tree growing in his

vineyard and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the

gardener: 'Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree and I

have found none. Cut it down, why should it use up the ground?' The gardener

replied: 'Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some fertilizer;

and perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it doesn't, you can cut it down."