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 word 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, and that is why 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 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 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 with him in remembering all Lord's blessings, His steadfast love, and His 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 Israelite's 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, and the first Gentile 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.
The three elements of God's manifestation in the burning bush linked to the Most Holy Trinity:
| 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 illusion 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 give 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 the way 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, page 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 will 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 the words "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 that the patriarchs knew their God by a different name, and he appeared to be 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 is 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 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 of the church at Corinth that they should learn from events in the history of Israel in the Old Testament. He uses the example of the Exodus 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), but 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, and they 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 which we were to be given. And the punishments meted out to them are figures of the punishment which 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 took place 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 make 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 added a warning 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 an 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, if it still fails to bear fruit, he will cut it down (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 that 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 that took place during His final journey to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51), Jesus was making 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 its failure to produce fruit, it withered to the roots. The cursing of the fig tree was the signal 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.
See a list of the Biblical covenants of the Old and New Testaments. For the Bible study on Lent and Easter, see 2nd SUNDAY OF LENT (Cycle C)
The Theme of the Readings: Divine Revelations
In this Sunday's Old Testament and Gospel readings, the
Patriarch Abraham and the Apostles Peter, James, and John have a transcendent
experience of the Divine. Abram/Abraham put his faith in God, and he received a
reward that echoed down through the generations of his family to find its
fulfillment in his descendant, Jesus of Nazareth (Mt 1:1). As a reward for his
righteousness, God revealed Himself to Abraham and sealed his relationship in a
ritual that ratified an unconditional covenant as God's Presence passed through
a pathway of the pieces of sacrificed animals in the form of "a smoking brazier
and a flaming torch." Fire in Scripture is often a symbol of God's Divine
Presence such as in the fire at Moses's burning bush experience, and the
tongues of fire representing the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon the
disciples praying in the Upper Room fifty days after Jesus's Resurrection,
purifying them as the members of a new and eternal Covenant community (Ex 3:1-6;
Acts 2:1-4).
In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist celebrates his visit to Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem by proclaiming his joy in his Lord and confidence that God is his light, guiding him on the path to salvation. When the psalmist declares, The LORD is my light, Christians connect his declaration with Jesus's words spoken in the Jerusalem Temple when He proclaimed: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (Jn 8:12). The risen Christ also fulfills the psalmist's hope to one day be with his LORD in "the land of the living" since Heaven is the true Sanctuary of God that Jesus has opened for all who believe in Him as Lord and Savior (CCC 1026).
In the Second Reading, St. Paul invited the Philippian Christians to follow him in obedience just as he followed Christ. St. Paul wrote that those who occupy their lives with earthly pursuits must let go of those material things and look to Heaven for the transforming experience that Jesus promised all Christians. The time will come when He will give the faithful a new form to our bodies, just as three of the Apostles witnessed in the Transfiguration experience. We are destined to receive a glorious transformation and an intimate revelation of God when Christ rescues us from this temporal life to become citizens in His heavenly Kingdom.
In the Gospel reading, the Apostles Peter and the brothers James and John Zebedee also experienced a divine revelation to strengthen their faith in preparation for the ordeal they and the other disciples would face at the climax of Jesus's earthly ministry. Jesus took them away from the material world and led them up a mountain, revealing to them a divine vision of Himself. They saw Christ in His glory, and experienced the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity: God the Son in His glory, God the Holy Spirit in the cloud that overshadowed them, and God the Father's voice from Heaven announcing His pleasure in His Divine Son and the command to "Listen to Him."
Luke 9:28-36 ~ The Transfiguration of Christ
28 About eight days
after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to
pray. 29 While he was praying his
face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were conversing with him,
Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared
in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions had been overcome by
sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing
with him. 33 As they were about to
part from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here; let
us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But he
did not know what he was saying. 34 While
he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they
became frightened when they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my chosen
Son; listen to him." 36 After the
voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that
time tell anyone what they had seen.
The disciples and Apostles must have been frightened and discouraged after Jesus's first prediction of His death in Luke 9:22. Jesus took the Apostles Peter and the brothers James and John Zebedee up a mountain to witness a manifestation of His glory that confirmed His identity as the divine Son of God. The vision will comfort them and the other Apostles in their darkest hour when He fulfills the prophecy of His death. It also offered them proof that Jesus has the power to defeat death, as He also told them in 9:22. Later, Jesus will choose the same three Apostles and take them apart from the others when He faces His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26:36-37; Mk 14:32-33).
In verse 29, the change in the appearance of Jesus's face recalls the description of Moses's radiant face after being in the presence of God in Exodus 34:29-35. In St. Matthew's account, he described Jesus's face as "radiant" and his garment as "as white as light" (Mt 17:2). This description also recalls Daniel's vision of the "man" dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold around his waist, whose body was like chrysolite, his face shone like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and feet looked like burnished bronze, and his voice sounded like the roar of a multitude (Dan 10:5-6, NABRE). The divine personage the 6th-century BC prophet Daniel saw may have been an angel or the pre-Incarnate Christ. Daniel's vision is very much like what St. John saw of the glorified Jesus in Revelation 1:12-15.
Then, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus in transcendent glory and discussed the coming hour of His "exodus" from Jerusalem (Lk 9:30-31). Do not miss the significance of the Greek word "exodus" (the literal word in the Greek text) in verse 31 in the discussion of Jesus's departure (meaning of the word "exodus") from Jerusalem. Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus the events of His death, burial, Resurrection, and Ascension when He would make in His "exodus" (departure) from His earthly existence to the heavenly Kingdom.
The disciples and Apostles knew Jesus in His human form; however, in the encounter on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus revealed Himself in His divine glory in the presence of the old covenant Law-giver and liberator, Moses, and the prophet Elijah. At the epiphany on the Mt. of Transfiguration, the three Apostles witnessed the coming together of the Old Sinai Covenant and the New Covenant in Christ as Jesus embodied the beginning and the end of divine revelation. Moses and Elijah represented the old covenant Church. They represented the Law and the prophets of the old Israel. Peter, James, and John represented the Kingdom of the New Covenant, embodying the hierarchy of the new Israel, the Church of the people of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (CCC 751-52, 877). It was a vision of the supernatural the Apostles would need to strengthen themselves and their brother disciples in the covenant ordeal they were to face in the final hours of Jesus's life and the fear they suffered between His death and Resurrection.
33 As they were
about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are
here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah." But he did not know what he was saying.
The Gospel of John does not mention the Transfiguration.
John rarely repeats what the Synoptic Gospels sufficiently covered. Still, he
does relate in the second year of Jesus's ministry (which began with the
miracle feeding of the five thousand) that Jesus went to Jerusalem for the
pilgrim feast of Sukkoth, known in English as the Feast of Booths/Shelters or
Tabernacles (Jn 7:1-2, 10). The covenant obligations for the festival appear in
Leviticus 23:33-43. In Leviticus 23:42, God commanded: During this week
every native Israelite among you shall dwell in booths, that your descendants
may realize that, when I led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, I made
them dwell in booths, I, the LORD am your God." The festival lasted a
significant eight days, seven days for the feast, and with a sacred assembly on
the eighth day (Lev 23:33, 39;
Num 29:12, 35).
Perhaps Peter suggested building booths because the Transfiguration event took place near the festival of Booths/Tabernacles. What was it that Peter suggested but may not have fully understood? Notice that Jesus did not rebuke Peter. Perhaps Peter was proposing that they did not need to keep the old covenant Feast of Booths to offer worship to God in the Jerusalem Temple when they could worship God the Son on the mountain in the presence of the great prophets. He probably didn't fully realize that the old Sinai Covenant order was coming to an end, and its festival commands and prohibitions were no longer binding. Perhaps he realized there would be new feast days to honor a new and eternal covenant as prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34; 32:40; 50:5).
Jesus was working to complete fulfilling the Law, as He promised in Matthew 5:18, and would announce and inaugurate the New Covenant at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19-20). He would fulfill/finish the Sinai Covenant on the Cross when He announced, Teltelestai/It is finished." (Jn 19:30, NABRE). The moral law would remain, but the religious purity rituals, the God-ordained feasts, and their commands and prohibitions would be transformed into New Covenant worship, sacraments, and feast days (Heb 8:13; 9:11-15; 10:11-18).
34 While he was
still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over [overshadowed] them, and
they became frightened when they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
"This is my chosen Son; listen to him." 36
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and
did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.
The voice is the same voice that was heard at Jesus's
baptism by St. John the Baptist (Lk 3:22). Notice how the Most Holy Trinity is
manifested in this event as He was at Jesus's baptism:
The Greek word for the shadow of the cloud cast over them is episkiazo. It is the same word found in the account of the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Virgin Mary in the Incarnation (Lk 1:35), and it is the same word used in the Greek translation of Exodus when God's Spirit overshadowed the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 40:34). A cloud is a frequent vehicle for the manifestation of God's presence in Scripture (for some additional examples see Ex 16:10; 19:9; 24:15-16; 33:9, 34:5; 2 Mac 2:8; Acts 1:9; Rev 11:12; 14:14).
36 After the voice
had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.
Like the children of Israel who heard the voice of God in
the Theophany at Sinai (Ex 20:18), and like the prophet Daniel who experienced
a divine appearance (Dan 9:15-18; 10:7-9), the three Apostles are amazed at
what they experienced. "At that time," they did not tell anyone but shared
their experience later. Peter wrote about the Transfiguration years later in a
letter to the universal Church: We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we
had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God
the Father when that unique declaration came to him for the majestic glory,
"This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased." We ourselves heard
this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain (2
Pt 1:16-18, NABRE).
In the sacrifice of the Mass, the presiding priest makes an invitation to the congregation of the faithful. At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest, like St. Paul in our Second Reading, invites us to let go of our earthly concerns and "lift up our hearts" to Heaven to experience a divine revelation of Christ in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. We must let go of our temporal concerns to fully grasp the spiritual and to sing as the psalmist sings in today's Responsorial Psalm: "I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD... for the LORD is my light and my salvation."
For the Bible study on Lent and Easter, see Lent and Easter Study.
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.
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*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.