Third Sunday of Lent Homily: Trusting in God’s Mercy and Timing

Readings and Virtual Homily for March 23, 2025, Third Sunday of Lent; On Retreat With the Class of 2025; Hitting Our Stride at San Gabriel Media

Readings for Mass this Sunday:

• Exodus 3:1-8

• Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11

• 1 Corinthians 10:1-6

• Luke 13:1-9

Dear Friends and Family,

Before I say anything about this week's readings, I suppose I should remind everyone that if your pastor has okayed the Cycle A readings for the next three weeks (to accommodate those in the RCIA process) those readings are, of course, different than what I have posted above and on which I am speaking, below.  Here at St. Clement we do not do the Cycle A readings except in Cycle A years, so my homily is based on the Cycle C readings, listed above.  

I confess, as I have done on other occasions, that I am hard-pressed to see any unifying theme in today's readings that cannot be reached short of artificial means.  I know the "committee in Rome" which provides the lectionary for us deliberately pairs the first reading and the Gospel, and in general arranges the second reading according to the principle of continuous reading, that is, the second reading is not chosen according to the theme that is supposed to unite the first reading and the Gospel passage.  But there are times, and this is one of them, when there is to my mind no clear connection between any of the readings.

When I hit a wall like this, in terms of identifying a theme, my general tendency is to simply take each reading as we find it, and identify relevant aspects in terms of our experience as twenty-first century disciples.  So...here goes.

The first reading is famous.  You have likely seen it acted out by Charlton Heston in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.  Moses, having led the flock of his father-in-law Jethro to pastures below the "mountain of God, Horeb," sees an amazing sight on the slope -- a bush that is on fire and yet which is not consumed by the fire (vs. 2).

It is important to remember just how little likely education in the Jewish faith Moses had, at this point in his life.  It is, actually, important to remember just how primitive the understandings of the Jews themselves were, with regard to their God and his promises, at this time.  This was before the Jewish priesthood (that started with Moses' brother Aaron -- Exodus 4:27-28, and beyond).  This was before the writing down of Scriptures (that may have been started with the song of praise sung by Moses' sister Miriam, on the far side of the Red Sea following the defeat of the Egyptians -- Exodus 15:20-21).  This was before God gave the people his law, at Sinai (that is, Horeb) in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).

What the Jews knew (and which Moses may not have known) was that God had made a covenant with their remote ancestor Abraham.  The people would be held captive in a foreign land for several centuries but God would deliver them (Genesis 15:13-14).  They knew that God would bring them back to the land he had promised them; they were, by the time of Moses, eagerly looking for their deliverer.

Moses himself was sufficiently unschooled in Judaism (he had been raised to honor the gods of Egypt) that he has to ask God his name.  This is Exodus 3:15-16, a bit beyond the passage for today's Mass.  God promises Moses that he is now about to keep his long-ago promise to Abraham: The time has come for the descendants of Abraham to be set free of Egypt and brought to the land God first promised them (vs. 8).  

A takeaway for us today is to realize that God keeps his promises.  God is faithful when we are faithful.  But in fact, God remains faithful, true to God's word and intent, even when we have strayed.  If the Lord wills it, whatever "it" is, it will come to be, one way or another, with or without our cooperation.  It is generally a lot easier on us, if we cooperate -- "cooperation with grace" is one of the Church's strongest recommendations for not just our spiritual health, but our temporal well-being, as well.

The psalm encourages a joyful confidence in the love and mercy of God.  It contains some fairly well-known verses, for instance, verse 8: "Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger, rich in kindness," and verse 12 (beyond our passage today): "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us."  The psalm urges a bright and grateful trust on our part, in God's abundant love.

The psalm's considerations on the fathomless mercy of God may, of course, be readily connected to the promise of the Lord to Moses, in the first reading.  God has heard the cry of his people in Egypt and in his mercy he intends to rescue them.

The second reading recounts the experiences of the Jews and Moses in the desert.  It reminds the new Christian converts in Corinth and all of us today of the mercy of God, but also of God's righteousness, and of God's judgments.  Paul uses the example of rebellion among the Jews in the desert to admonish Corinth's large and growing Christian community (vss. 5-6).  The connection for us today is fairly obvious.  God desires our salvation, and provides us with a roadmap to attain it.  It is up to us to use the map.

Finally, there is the Gospel passage from Luke, in which Jesus assures his hearers that acknowledgment of sin and repentance are necessary; that it is a mistake to assume that people who have suffered calamities are being punished while we are exempt (vss. 1-5).  Calamities happen; regardless of whether they happen to us, everyone is in need of forgiveness and grace. 

Jesus encourages his hearers to throw themselves on God's boundless mercy, just as the psalm does, when he offers the parable of the fruitless fig tree (vss. 6-9).  God wants us to thrive, to succeed in his plan for us as disciples.  Our way will be much easier for us if, again, we cooperate with grace, but God is patient and God is kind, as the psalm says, and God will give us many opportunities, if we are far from him, to find our way back.  

As most of you know, I have deep personal experience of the truth of this dynamic; I wandered far from God for most of a decade (the decade of my twenties) but the Lord was kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in forgiveness, and, as Jesus assures us in the Gospel passage, God continued to "cultivate" the possibilities of my discipleship until they did indeed begin to bear fruit.  God did not cut down the fruitless fig tree that I was in my twenties.  He kept cultivating the soil.  And oh my gosh am I forever grateful.

So...I guess if there is any unifying theme among today's readings, it would be to trust in the love and mercy of God.  

And that is as far as I can go, with this set of readings, in terms of working up a unified, thematic, message-oriented homily.  As I say, some Sundays, to borrow from Ringo, "it don't come easy."

I am finishing this homily late Thursday night at San Damiano where we are on retreat, yet again, this time with the seniors -- a retreat geared to help our soon-to-be-graduating class consider imminent major transition in their lives, within a context of faith, hope and trust in God's plan for them.

I have to admit to feeling a little bittersweet, at this retreat.  The Class of 2025 stole my heart like none before here at O'Dowd.  I have had special classes here at O'Dowd before, specifically, 2019 and 2022.  And don't get me wrong, I have loved all my graduating classes here; it is just that with some years, there is, for one reason or another, a special connection.  

With the Class of 2025, "special connection" is insufficient wording.  I have so many "favorites" among them that it renders the meaning of the word "favorite" basically inoperable.  They are the only class I taught here as freshmen.  They are the only class I have had as students now, three years: as freshmen. as sophomores and now, this spring, as seniors.  They are the only class I ever -- in ten years at the high school -- yelled at.  That memorable moment was when they were freshmen.  It was in fact through that experience that I so bonded with them, and they with me.

I told my small group here this morning that I do not want to see them leave.  Then I said that, of course, I DO want to see their graduation day.  I greatly look forward to it, because I want to see these amazing teenagers advance into the next exciting stage of their lives.  I told my small group that I understand that we -- the high school faculty and staff -- have met our responsibilities to them.  We have done our best to form them for the next stage in their lives, and I look forward with real anticipation to what they will accomplish.  

But I will miss them when they are gone.

Then I told my small group -- "You know what?  It is all good because I am going to be gone, too.  I will be on sabbatical, next fall, when the high school returns to business and the Class of 2025 is not there.  I won't be there, either!  All good."

The kids loved that.  

I will be on sabbatical this summer and next fall, and certain developments at San Gabriel Media assure me that this year, not last, not 2023 (which years had also been candidates for the date of this sabbatical) is the year that it was meant to be.  Leave aside the fact that I came to realize that the sabbatical could not happen until the Class of 2025 had left O'Dowd.  The fact is that San Gabriel is at a point now where we can use me full time (by which I mean, 50-60 and more hours a week).  As recently as last fall, this would not have been the case.  Far too much to go into here, and it would likely bore you in any event.  But developments at San Gabriel this past half year now augur for a highly productive sabbatical in a way they could not have, had I taken the time off earlier.  My love for the Class of 2025 was evidently fore-ordained; precisely to keep me at the high school until San Gabriel was ready to fully utilize my time away.  

We have been prepping for a marketing launch at SGM for well over a year now.  We are ready, this spring, to take the initial steps in that effort.  This fact dovetails unmistakably with my leaving the high school for a few months, to attend to our efforts at San Gabriel Media. 

I am marveling at God's timing with it all.  

And I am consoling myself that -- though my beloved Class of 2025 will not be at the high school next fall, it is all good, because I won't be either!

So, yeah...The classes of 2026, 2027.  I've taught them and oh yeah, I love them.  I am NOT abandoning them!  But this is the year for the sabbatical.

Gonna wrap it.  Hope your Lent is deepening in wonderful ways.

God bless.

Love,

Fr. Brawn