GOD IS MERCIFUL AND JUST
3^rd Sunday of Lent (Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15; 1Cor 10:1-6, 10-12; Lk 13:1-9)
Along with our mother church we are celebrating the extraordinary jubilee year of mercy, in particular we are entering into the third week of Lenten season. And the Sunday liturgy presents us the scripture passages which explain in detail about God’s unconditional merciful love for his people. Throughout the scripture God choses several instruments through whom He shows his mercy to his people. In the first reading today He chooses Moses to redeem the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. The very apparition of the angel of God in itself is an act of mercy. Moses was an ordinary person who escaped from Egypt after having killed an Egyptian. And now he was tending his uncle’s flock. God in His kindness and mercy comes down in such a way that an ordinary person can comprehend. Because his love and kindness for his people is unfathomably so rich that he wants to save his people at any cost.

It is very clear from what the angel of the Lord says. God has seen what is happening to his people in Egypt. When he uses the word “his” it denotes that the people of Israel are his possession. He further says that he knows personally what kind of suffering they are undergoing. By saying this, He makes himself one among them. He feels solidarity with them. In other word he is willing to come down to their level and suffer with them. Because, unless one experiences for himself what someone else is going through, he cannot really know the pains involved in it. Therefore, God feels the same pain and suffering that the people of Israel suffer. He does it not because they deserve it, but just out of his mercy for them. This act of mercy has two parts to it. First one is the promise to redeem them from the hands of the Egyptians. And the second part is the promise to settle them down in a land which would flow with honey and milk.

In the second reading St. Paul teaches the people at Corinth about the warning God has placed in front of us. For some people it may look like a threat. How could this warning exhibit God’s mercy for them? The warning itself is out of God’s mercy. Because, He does not want his people to perish but have eternal life. Therefore, this warning if understood as a positive encouragement would bring people more closer to God and may help people to stay on track(Lk 16:30, the rich man’s plea to Abraham to send someone from the dead to his brothers may serve as an example here.).

In the gospel Jesus manifests God’s act of mercy through the parable of fig tree. In Jesus’ time fig fruit was one of the ordinary and an important source of food for the People at Palestine. If a person had taken care of a fig tree for three years and at the end of the three years the owner could not find any fruit to eat, naturally the gardener would be the first to suggest cutting it down for he knows how much effort he has put on taking care of this tree. But in this story the gardener himself recommends the tree to be taken for one more year. It shows his patience and kindness and mercy toward the tree. And Jesus though warns the people of destruction of their lives, still gives them the hope that God is so merciful despite of their infidelity toward God. Therefore, God always gives them another chance to repent.

Jesus has always been to the point in teaching the truth. In today’s gospel also he does the same. He places the two aspects of God’s nature: He is merciful and just. In his mercy he admonishes us to repent and in his justice He will punish those who ignore his warning and continue living ungodly life. What is our response to God’s invitation to repent?