To watch Fr. Joe’s homily from the Third Sunday of Lent: CLICK HERE!
Somewhere this week I came across the phrase, “We are a people who forget too easily.”
We forget:
- Where we put our car keys
- To do our homework
- To take out the garbage
- Birthdays and Anniversaries…
- What’s really important.
I am sure each of us can add a few more things to the list of what we easily forget.
I would suggest that today’s readings are reminding us to remember what God has done for us. That God is in our midst, not as a God of vengeance and destruction, as God could be. But God is in our midst as a God of salvation and freedom. Freedom from slavery for sure as we hear in the first reading from Exodus, our God is a God who cares for his people, who protects his people, who leads his people to the Promised Land. This needs to be REMEMBERED!
God is in our midst yesterday, today and tomorrow. How do we REMEMBER? How do we remind one another that God is in our midst?
Just maybe we remember and remind people when we LIVE and SHARE with others what our God has shared with us and others: patience and forgiveness of the sinner. Isn’t this one of the main teachings that comes forth from the story of the fig tree today?
The tree has been cared for three years, but no fruit. The first thought is to cut it down! But the gardener says, let me try again, it may bear fruit in the future. That tree is US; That gardener is Jesus, our Savior.
The stories of Jesus where usually pretty direct and understandable by the people, and Jesus point is simply:
- Remember the story
- Remember how God has always been and will always be present in your life
- Remember how God has and continues to show: mercy, compassion, forgiveness, patience, kindness, generosity, and so much more to us, His people time and again.
- Share what God has shared with one another…
I was going to stop here, but let me end with 3 examples of how we might remember and not forget what God has done for us:
- Is there someone we need to be more patient with? Someone we need to really forgive, if only in our heart?
- Is it possible that we might bring a food item or two next weekend for area food pantries as a reminder that we do not forget about God’s people?
- Is it possible that acts of kindness, like the new dishes our confirmation students will be bringing to an area facility next week, might get us thinking about how such acts of “kindness” can continue in our lives as person, family and Parish.