Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
3rd SUNDAY OF LENT (Cycle C)
(the readings for Cycle A are used for the instruction of Catechumens)
Readings:
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The words LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The "Scrutiny Rites" are initiation rites that usually begin on the Third Sunday of Lent and continue on the Fourth and Fifth Sundays. It is a beautiful ancient practice of the Catholic Church that can be traced back to St. Cyprian (AD 258) and the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The rites are believed to be inspired by St. Paul's First Letter to Timothy, where he wrote: "Do not lay hands too readily on anyone and do not share in another's sins (1 Tim 5:22 NABRE). The RCIA candidates receive the scrutiny rites as they stand with the support of their godparents or sponsors. The ritual includes a minor exorcism where the Church prays that the elect will be free from Satan's power and for protection as the candidates continue their journey to the fullness and beauty of the Catholic Faith.
The Theme of the Readings ~ Covenant Promises and the Call to Repentance
God is faithful in remembering His covenant promises, and
His intent is for His judgments always to be redemptive. He is a loving Father
who continually calls His covenant children to repent of wrongdoings,
acknowledge guilt, and return to their covenant family union with Him so they
can produce the "good fruit" of righteousness.
In our First Reading, Yahweh tells Moses that He will rescue the Israelites from their Egyptian slavery, fulfilling the covenant promise He made to Abraham, the physical father of His people (Gen 15:13-16; Ex 2:24). In his encounter with the Divine, the voice Moses hears from within the burning bush identifies Himself as the voice of the God of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Fathers of the Church, like St. Augustine, wrote that the angel of Yahweh was a manifestation of the pre-Incarnate Christ who was active in the plan of salvation before He became God enfleshed. They also believed that the Most Holy Trinity was present in the manifestation. God the Son was present as the angel of Yahweh, the voice from the bush identified as the God of the Patriarchs was God the Father, and the fire that did not consume the bush was God the Holy Spirit.
The Responsorial Psalm reminds us that God made His ways known to Moses and worked mighty deeds on behalf of His covenant people in redeeming them from destruction because "the Lord is kind and merciful." The psalmist desires to praise God and express his gratitude for His mercy. He calls upon those reading his psalm to join him in remembering all the Lord's blessings, steadfast love, and mercy revealed in seeking justice for the oppressed.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote that the Exodus redemption events were recorded for our benefit. We should understand the Israelites' exodus out of Egypt as foreshadowing our exodus out of sin. Their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and miracle feeding of the manna in the wilderness prefigured our rebirth into the New Covenant in the Sacrament of Baptism and our feeding miracle of the Eucharist on our journey to the Promised Land of Heaven. And like the rebellious Israelites who refused to repent and broke their covenant with Yahweh, we will also perish in the wilderness of sin if we refuse to repent our transgressions and remain faithful in obedience to our covenant union with Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus gave us a warning in the Parable of the Fig Tree. The fruitful fig tree and the fruitful vine were Old Testament symbols for Israel in covenant union with Yahweh (cf. Is 5:1-7; Jer 8:3; 24:1-10). However, the unfruitful, barren fig tree and vine symbolized Israel's failures to produce the "good fruit" of repentance and righteousness that resulted in covenant judgment and destruction. In Jesus's parable, the orchard owner wanted the gardener to cut down a fruitless fig tree, but the gardener asked the master to give the fig tree one last season to produce fruit. In the same way, Jesus was giving the old covenant people of the Jews one more "season" in one last opportunity to bear the "good fruit" of repentance as evidence of their return to God and acceptance of Him as their promised Redeemer-Messiah (Lk 3:8).
Our relationship with God is not static but defined by our continual conversion and spiritual growth. Lent is the time to evaluate our progress on the journey to salvation; it is our season of repentance and renewal. Are you prepared to be confronted by God like Moses in the First Reading? Are you open to St. Paul's warning in the Second Reading that whenever we think we are standing secure, we may be in danger of neglecting the Lord's call to continual repentance and conversion? And are we bearing the "good fruit" of faith demonstrated by the deeds of love and charity that Jesus taught are necessary for a fruitful relationship with God in the Gospel reading?
The First Reading Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15 ~ Moses' Encounter with God
1 Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law
Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to
Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There an angel of the LORD [YHWH] appeared to
Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see
that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. 3 So Moses decided, "I must go
over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." 4 When
the LORD [YHWH] saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out
to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." 5 God said
"Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you
stand is holy ground. 6 I am the God of your fathers," he continued, "the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look at God. 7 But the LORD [YHWH] said, "I have witnessed the
affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against
their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. 8a Therefore, I
have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out
of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and
honey." [...]. 13 Moses said to God, "But when I go to the Israelites and say to
them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is
his name?' what am I to tell them?" 14 God replied, "I am who am." Then he
added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you." 15
God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD
[YHWH], the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God
of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; thus am I to be
remembered through all generations."
Mt. Horeb is also called Mt. Sinai (31 times in the Pentateuch, beginning in Ex 16:1). Possibly, Mt. Horeb was the Midianite name of the mountain where Moses saw the burning bush. Perhaps the name of the holy mountain became known to the Israelites as "Sinai" after the theophany of the burning "bush," or "tree," which is sene in Hebrew. The burning bush/tree will become an emblem of the manifestation of Yahweh's spirit indwelling the desert Tabernacle and later the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple. In the Book of Genesis, God manifested His visible presence to Abraham in the ratification covenant ritual in Genesis Chapter 15 in the form of fire. In the covenant ratification ceremony in Genesis 15:17, God walked between the bodies of the sacrificed animals in the form of a flaming torch and a burning brazier.
In Moses's first supernatural encounter with God, there are three parts to the manifestation of the Divine:
Verse 2 is the first time God's holy covenant name, YHWH/Yahweh, appears in the Book of Exodus. The first person in Scripture to use God's Divine Name was Eve in Genesis 4:1. The first Gentile to speak the Divine Name was Rahab, the heroine of Jericho (Josh 2:9). The Biblical text describes an angel of Yahweh as appearing to Moses "in fire flaming out of the bush" (verse 2); however, in verse 6, the voice Moses hears from within the burning bush identifies Himself as the voice of the God of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Fathers of the Church, like St. Augustine, wrote that the angel of Yahweh was a manifestation of the pre-Incarnate Christ who was active in the plan of salvation before He became God enfleshed. They also noted that the Most Holy Trinity was present in the manifestation. God the Son was present as the angel of Yahweh, the voice from the bush identified as the God of the Patriarchs was God the Father, and the fire that did not consume the bush was God the Holy Spirit.
| Manifestation | Persons of the Most Holy Trinity |
| 1. The voice of the angel of Yahweh | 1. Pre-Incarnate God the Son |
| 2. The voice of the God of the patriarchs | 2. God the Father |
| 3. The unquenchable fire that does not burn up the bush/tree | 3. God the Holy Spirit |
See CCC 202, 205-209, 255, 259, 689, 696 (fire a symbol of the Holy Spirit).
Some Church Fathers identified the burning bush/tree as a thorn bush. They saw it as a reminder of the sin of Adam and the curse judgment in Genesis 3:18. They also saw it as an allusion to Jesus's victory over the covenant curse judgments (Lev 26:14-46; Dt 28:15-69) and the symbol of that judgment in the crown of thorns He wore to His crucifixion in Matthew 27:29 (St. Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator 2.8.75).
Calling to Moses from the burning bush, God warned him to take off his sandals and not come near. These instructions are similar to what the captain of the army of Yahweh said to Joshua forty years later as he stood near the walls of Jericho when the angel told him: "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so (Josh 5:25).
It was dangerous for Moses or any human to come too near God (Ex 19:12, 24). Only Jesus Christ could step across that holy threshold. Jesus of Nazareth, the man who is God-enfleshed, did not warn men and women to keep their distance. Instead, He urged them to come closer, even offering the wounds in His hands for St. Thomas to feel His torn flesh and believe. Through His perfect sacrifice, death, and Resurrection, Jesus had the power to bring redeemed humanity into God the Father's presence, saying: "Here am I and the children God has given me" (Heb 2:13). Moses covered his face (verse 6b) because he recognized that he was in the presence of a deity who identified Himself as the God of his forefathers. Moses covered his face in reverence and fear.
In verses 7-8, God gave Moses three assurances:
In verse 13, Moses asked the name of the deity addressing him. He had been exposed to the various gods of Egypt and had seen their priests perform "signs" and "wonders" offered as proof of the deity's power (Ex 7:11). The priests of other Near Eastern deities also had what appeared to be miracles displaying the power of their gods (Dan 14:1-27). What proof did Moses have to present to the Israelites that the God of the patriarchs revealed Himself and gave him the authority to bring them out of Egypt? Moses tested the deity who addressed him by asking Him to identify Himself: could He provide a name by which the Israelites knew Him? The deity would be legitimate if the name given was known to the patriarchs. If it was a name Moses did not know, then this entity could not be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In verses 13-15, God revealed His Divine Name to Moses. Abraham used the same name to address God (Gen 15:2, 7-8). Ancient Hebrew was written only in consonants; hence, the four consonants YHWH is how the Divine Name appears in the most ancient texts of this passage. The "four-letter word," known as the Tetragrammaton, is believed by scholars to be the third person masculine singular form of the ancient Hebrew word hwh, the verb "to be" (Propp, Exodus, page 192-193; Davis, Studies in Exodus, pages 72-73; Navarre, Pentateuch, pages 258-259.
The four Hebrew consonants YHWH are presented in Scripture as God's holy covenant name. God significantly told Moses: This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations" (Ex 3:15b). Of all the names or titles for God in Scripture, it is this form of His name that appears most frequently (about 6,800 times; Elohim, God plural, appears about 2,600 times). The four Hebrew characters, YHWH = yad, hay, vav ("v" in Hebrew can also be rendered "w" in English), and hay are known as the "Tetragrammaton" or "tetragram," meaning "the four-letter word." Biblical scholars do not know how YHWH was originally pronounced; "Yah-way" is their best guess. Later, God's covenant people treated God's name with great reverence, declaring it too holy to be spoken aloud (despite God's command in Ex 3:15), especially by pagans. Therefore, the Hebrew Ha Shem (The Name), or Adonai (LORD in English translations), replaced the Divine Name in Scripture. Speaking God's covenant name was restricted to the priests and people worshipping in God's Temple in Jerusalem. The priests concluded every worship service by pronouncing God's Divine Name over the people in the final benediction (Num 6:22-27). And so, with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70, God's holy covenant name was no longer spoken aloud, and the correct pronunciation of the name was lost.
But what does the Tetragrammaton "YHWH" mean? Biblical scholars have argued about the meaning of YHWH for centuries. Since Biblical names generally have a discernible meaning, most scholars insist that YHWH can be reasonably translated. Based on etymology and context, most scholars have agreed that YHWH is an archaic form of the verb "to be" (hwh in Hebrew, pronounced "hawah") and translated as "I am who I am" or "I will be who I will be." Or, for those scholars who believe the verb is in the causative imperfect masculine singular form, "He causes to be; brings into existence; He brings to pass, He creates" (Propp, Studies in Exodus, pages 72-73). When the voice identified Himself as "Yahweh," Moses had proof of His identity as the God of his fathers by the holy covenant name known to the patriarchs. However, it also revealed God's true nature and essence: the deity who has always existed will continue forever and be with Moses and Israel in their struggles (see CCC 203-209).
Titles identify the power and authority of a person. However, in the Bible, the name of an individual or a deity also expresses its bearer's true nature and essence (see 1 Sam 25:25). St. Peter made the statement that those who desire to accept God's gift of salvation must accept Jesus Christ as Savior, saying, "for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12; quoted from CCC 432). Peter didn't mean eternal salvation could be achieved by simply saying Jesus's name or expressing belief in His name. In ancient times, one's name expressed the person's true essence. Therefore, Peter meant that to claim Jesus's gift of salvation in His "name" is to accept on faith everything He taught about Himself and everything Sacred Scripture and the Church (Christ's vehicle of salvation) professes to be true about Him. This belief included His fully human and divine nature, His Resurrection from the dead, His ascension to God the Father, and His power to save all humanity from eternal death by giving them the gift of eternal life through His "name" (CCC 430-435, 452).
Applying the meaning of YHWH as "I am who I am" or "I will
be who I will be" contextually fits the passages in Exodus 3:13-15a:
13 Moses said to God [Elohim], "But when I go to the
Israelites and say to them, 'The God [Elohim] of your fathers has sent me to
you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?" 14 God [Elohim]
replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the
Israelites: I AM sent me to you." 15 God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall
you say to the Israelites: The LORD [YHWH], the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.
This rendering also agrees with Exodus 3:6, where God said: "I AM the God of your
ancestors," he said, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob." It also agrees with Jesus's I AM statements in the fourth
Gospel; for example, when He said: "In all truth I tell you, before Abraham
ever was, I AM" (John 8:58). And it agrees with God's revelation of
Himself to the Apostle John in the last Bible book, the Book of Revelation: John,
to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace to you from Him who is, who was,
and who is to come (Rev 1:4), and it agrees with the Greek Septuagint
translation in Exodus Chapter 3: ego e'imi = "I AM" (Davis, Studies
in Exodus, page 73).
Jesus used "I AM" in the Gospel of St. John twenty-six times. He also identified Himself in St. John's Gospel using seven "I AM" statements with a predicate nominative and four "I AM" statements without a predicate nominative. In any event, Moses must have recognized the name YHWH because he did not object to the patriarchs knowing their God by a different name and appeared satisfied with God's answer.
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11 ~ The Lord is
Merciful
The Response is: "The Lord is kind and merciful."
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his
holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Response:
3 He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your
wills. 4 He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and
compassion
Response:
6 The LORD secures justice and the rights of all the
oppressed. 7 He has made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children
of Israel.
Response:
8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and
abounding in kindness. [...] 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so
surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
Response:
In this psalm attributed to David, the psalmist desires to praise God with his entire being (verses 1-2). He is grateful for God's mercy and calls upon others to join with him in remembering God's blessings (verses 3-6):
Verse 6 reveals the psalm's theme: God shows steadfast love and mercy in His justice for the oppressed. First, the psalmist recalls God's mighty works in Israel's history when He revealed Himself to Moses and rescued the oppressed Israelites in the Exodus liberation. He even recounts the attributes that God revealed to Moses in Exodus 34:6 (verse 8). Then, in verse 11, the psalmist emphasizes the enormity of God's loving-kindness [hesed] towards those who are obedient and fear offending Him. We can demonstrate our obedience of faith and fear of offending our heavenly Father by repenting of our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by renewing our covenant relationship with Him in the New Covenant Law of Christ Jesus through our love of God and love of neighbor (Mt 22:36-40) and receiving Christ in the Eucharist (Lk 20:22; Jn 6:53-58 ).
The Second Reading 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 ~
Overconfidence Can Lead to a Failure to Repent
1 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and
all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 All ate the
same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank
from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was the Christ. 5 Yet
God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.
6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil
things, as they did. [...].10 Do not grumble as some of them did and suffered
death by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them as an example, and
they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages
has come. 12 Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care
not to fall.
St. Paul warns the self-assured and proud Christians at Corinth that they should learn from events in the history of Israel in the Old Testament. He uses the example of the exodus (departure) out of Egypt and the wilderness journey to the Promised Land, recalling the many works of God the Israelites witnessed:
St. Paul interprets the miracle of the Cloud and the Red Sea in verse 1 as symbolizing two aspects of Christian Baptism: the Holy Spirit and the water (Jn 3:3, 5). Paul calls the manna and the water from the rock "supernatural" food and drink because they are symbols of the Eucharist (Jn 6:48-51). Then he makes a shocking announcement when he declares that the "rock" that followed them and gave the water was Christ! In the Old Testament, "rock" was sometimes used as a title for Yahweh (Dt 32:4, 15, 18; 2 Sam 22:32; 23:3; Is 17:10; etc.). As he does in Romans 9:33, 10:11-13, and Ephesians 4:8, St. Paul applies the title "rock" to Jesus Christ, signifying the prerogative of Yahweh to Jesus and pointing to His divinity. By writing that the rock who is Christ "followed them," Paul claims that the pre-Incarnate Christ was active in the Exodus liberation and redemption that prefigures Christ liberating and redeeming humanity in the exodus out of sin and death that He accomplished in His death and resurrection.
During the journey, God protected the children of Israel and worked miracles on their behalf (verses 1-4). Still, despite the many examples of God's loving care, the members of the Exodus generation were rebellious and ungrateful. God judged the covenant failure of the first generation of the Exodus, except for faithful Joshua and Caleb. All the others died in the wilderness, never making it to the Promised Land (Num 13:29-30; 26:65).
St. Paul tells the Christians of Corinth that this should serve as a lesson for them. The warning is that being in a covenant relationship with God does not mean we should take our covenant obligations for granted. Being unfaithful to God runs the risk of divine judgment, like the Israelites of the Exodus generation. St. John Chrysostom wrote: "God's gifts to the Hebrews were figures of the gifts of Baptism and the Eucharist we were to receive. And the punishments meted out to them are figures of the punishment our ingratitude will deserve; hence his reminder to be watchful" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 23).
Luke 13:1-9 ~ A Call to Repentance and the Parable of the
Barren Fig Tree
1 At that time some people who were present there told
him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their
sacrifices. 2 He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these
Galileans suffered in this way, they were greater sinners than all other
Galileans? 3 By no means! I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish
as they did! 4 Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at
Siloam fell on them; do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who
lived in Jerusalem? 5 By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you
will all perish as they did!" 6 And he told them this parable: "There once
was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in
search of fruit on it but found none, 7 he said to the gardener, 'For three
years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.
So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?' 8 He said to him in reply,
'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it
and fertilize it; 9 it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it
down.'"
The "Pilate" mentioned in verse 1 is Pontus Pilate, the Roman governor of Samaria and Judea (AD 26-36). That Pilate was the cause of a massacre suggests the Galileans had come to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices at the Temple and were perhaps involved in some protest against Roman rule. The second tragedy also occurred in Jerusalem at a tower near the ritual purification pool of Siloam. However, Jesus's teaching is that the personal sins of the victims were not the immediate cause of either tragedy (also see Jesus's teaching in John 9:3). Instead, Jesus asked the crowd to view such tragedies as providential invitations for continual conversion by examining one's own life and relationship to God and responding with humble repentance for one's sins. One never knows when a similar tragedy could claim one's life. In the case of a sudden tragedy, there is no longer the opportunity to repent and make one's life right with God before one must face God's divine judgment and give a final accounting for one's sins.
Jesus continued His message on the importance of repentance in verses 1-5 with a story about God's patience with those who have not yet given evidence of repentance (verses 3 and 8). He also warned about the inevitability of divine judgment in His Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. The vine or fig tree was one of the recurring symbolic images of the prophets that represented God's covenant relationship with Israel. In the symbolic images of the Old Testament prophets, a fruitful fig tree represented Israel in covenant unity and fidelity with God. However, an unfruitful fig tree indicated Israel's covenant failure in her mission to God's holy people when they failed to produce the "good fruit" of service (see Jer 8:13; 24:1-10 and the charts on the symbolic images of the prophets).
The fig tree is the only fruit-bearing tree named in Eden (Gen 3:7). The fruitful fig tree was a sign of the good things God promised the covenant people in the Promised Land (Dt 8:8). Proverbs 27:18 advises that God will bless the person who produces good "fruit" in his life: He who tends a fig tree eats its fruit, and he who is attentive to his master will be enriched. And the prophet Jeremiah compared Israel under the curse of divine judgment to a fruitless fig tree: I shall put an end to them, Yahweh declares, no more grapes on the vine, no more figs on the fig tree only withered leaves (Jer 8:13 NJB).
In Jesus's parable, the owner of an orchard complains to his gardener that the fig tree has failed to produce fruit for three years and tells the gardener to cut it down. The gardener urges the owner to leave it for just a little longer so he can fertilize it in the hope that it will begin producing fruit. However, he will cut it down if it still fails to bear fruit (Lk 13:6-9). A parable is a symbolic story that presents a lesson using familiar events or circumstances. Symbolically, God is the owner of the orchard, the fruitful land He gave His covenant people. It can be compared to the garden in Eden that God gave Adam and Eve, which was also an orchard (Gen 2:8-9). The fig tree is Israel/the covenant people, and Jesus is the gardener who asks for a little longer to bring the tree to bear "fruit." The children of Israel were not owners but only tenants on God's land (Lev 25:23). Therefore, they could be dispossessed of the land if they were disobedient to His covenant and followed the ways of their pagan neighbors (Dt 8:18-20).
| The fig tree | God's old covenant people—the Jews |
| The orchard | The holy land of Israel |
| The owner of the orchard | God |
| The gardener | Jesus |
The reference to the three years the gardener worked with the tree may refer to "three" as a number symbolizing importance, usually signifying a future event in God's divine plan for humanity's salvation. It may also refer to Jesus's mission, which spanned three Passovers. During that time, He was "pruning" the false teachings that led to a rigid misinterpretation of the Law that lacked compassion (Lk 6:1-5, 9-11; 11:37-52; 13:10-16), His call for the covenant people to bear the good fruit of repentance, and to recognize Him as the promised Messiah. They failed to produce "good fruit," but, as in the parable, Jesus (the gardener) asked God (the owner of the orchard and fig tree) for a little more time.
In this episode, during His final journey to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51), Jesus made His last attempt to call the covenant people to repentance and for them to acknowledge Him as the promised Messiah. If they did not bear the "fruit" of repentance and accept their mission to carry the Gospel message of salvation to the Gentiles (Is 66:18-21), it would be time to cut down the barren fig tree of old covenant Israel. The end of the "little more time" will come about when Jesus passes His judgment on the "barren fig tree" on Monday during His last week in Jerusalem (Mt 21:18-21 and Mk 11:12-14). The fig tree had no fruit for Him, and when He cursed it for failing to produce fruit, it withered to the roots. The cursing of the fig tree signaled that it was time for Him to establish the New Covenant prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah, which took place at the Last Supper (Jer 31:31-34; Lk 22:20; Heb 10:16).
Just before His Ascension, Jesus commanded a faithful remnant of the Jews of the new Israel (Apostles and disciples of the New Covenant Church) to take His Gospel message of salvation to the "ends of the earth" to the Gentile nations of the world (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). The Old Covenant was literally "cut down" and ended forty years after Jesus's Ascension in AD 70 when the Jews revolted against Rome, and the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. From that time forward, the Jews couldn't observe the commands and ordinances of the Sinai Covenant for liturgical sacrifices and worship without a Temple. Only the New Covenant universal Church continued to offer priests, altars, sacrifice, incense, and the thanksgiving meal of communion in the sacred meal of the Eucharist that unites the people of God across the face of the earth.
How can we apply this parable to our Lenten journey? We must reflect on the condition of our lives. Are we bearing the "good fruit" of repentance? In His last homily during the Last Supper, Jesus spoke symbolically again about fruitful branches when He said: I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me (Jn 15:1-4). During our forty-day Lenten journey, are we submitting the "roots" and "branches" of our lives to the efforts of the Divine Gardener who wants to "prune" the unfruitful works to strengthen us in our spiritual growth to bear the good fruit that leads to eternal life.
For the Bible study on Lent and Easter, see Lent And Easter Study.
Catechism References for this lesson (* indicates
Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Exodus 3:1-8 (CCC 2575*);
3:5-6, 9 (CCC 208*);
3:5 (CCC 2777*);
3:6 (CCC 205*, 207*);
3:13-15 (CCC 205*);
3:14 (CCC 446*, 2666*, 2810*)
1 Corinthians 10:1-6 (CCC 1094*); 10:1-2 (CCC 697*); 10:2 (CCC 117*); 10:4 (CCC 694*); 10:6 (CCC 128*); 10:11 (CCC 117*, 128*, 2175*)
Covenants (CCC 73)
Christ as the definitive covenant of God: (CCC 1962, 1963*, 1964*)
God calls Moses and hears prayers of His people (CCC 210*, 2575*, 2576*, 2577*)
Observance of the Law prepares us for conversion (CCC 1963*, 1964*)
Evil and its works as an obstacle on the way of salvation (CCC 2851)
Old Testament "types" fulfilled in the New Testament (CCC 128*, 129*, 130*, 1094*)
Bearing fruit (CCC 736*, 1108*, 1109*, 1129*, 1521, 1724*, 2345*, 2516*, 2731*)
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