Sunday Gospels encourage us to want to change for Jesus
by Sister Carolyn Zahringer
Lent -- a journey of 40 days beginning with the first light of each new day. We are embarking on the third week. How have we embraced the first two weeks of this Lenten journey? Has our level of awareness deepened each day to where God’s spirit is drawing us?
This weekend has the option of two sets of readings. If there are RCIA candidates, we hear the reading of the Woman at the Well from St. John’s Gospel ( 4:5-42). The preface for this Mass prays: “For when he asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink, he had already created the gift of faith within her and so ardently did he thirst for her faith, and he kindled in her the fire of divine love.” What experiences have we had that invite our faith to thirst for divine love?
If we have the Gospel proclaimed for the regular third Sunday of Lent, Luke 13:1-9, we hear the parable of the disappointing fig tree that for three years has not produced any figs. The directions are to cut it down, “why should it exhaust the soil?” But the gardener begs for another year to see if, with some special tending-care, it might produce a crop. A request for another “chance” is granted. Lent is a special season for another “chance” to grow in areas of our life that maybe we’ve been distracted from tending. How does Lent invite each of us to slow down and look with eyes of faith at our daily choices? How do our individual choices bring about a renewed measure of peace and justice in our world?
Excellent reflection Sister!!! Very thought provoking!!