3rd Sunday of Lent

       In Lent, God invites us to change our ways. In the Gospel, Jesus shows that his Father is always calling us. Time is short; we should choose to follow him now. The first reading tells us about Moses who, when God called him, abandoned his own plans accepted the Lord's proposal to return to Egypt and liberate his people. The journey to freedom is long and hard. The children of Israel in the desert gave in to many temptations. This happens to us even when we choose to follow the Lord. This is the message of the second reading. And St. Paul tells us to learn a lesson from them and not to be like them.

      Like short parable in the Gospel about a fig tree, we can go on year after year without bearing fruit. It was given opportunities of every kind to produce fruit, but it failed to do so. "The Lord is kind a merciful", Our Psalm refrain, but he expects us not to take his mercy for granted. With the help of his kindness, he expects us to grow in goodness and holiness of life.

     A young girl brought her boyfriend home to meet her parents. The parents couldn't find many good qualities about him. When the parents had the opportunity to talk to their daughter later, by herself, the girl's mother said : "Dear, he doesn't seem like a very nice person." "Mom", the daughter answered, "If he wasn't nice, why would he be doing 500 hours of community service?"

     It's stretching things a bit to say "community service" fits into the theme of today's liturgy, but our readings remind us not to be like the fig tree in Jesus' parable today. We are to produce good works. God wants us to trust him, to him and to do good for others.