Introduction
The story of salvation history continues during this Lenten season, with the major theme of this Sunday being the incomprehensibility of God.
1st Reading – Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
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.
There an angel of the LORD 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.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”
When the LORD 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.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.
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.
But the LORD 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.
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.”
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?”
God replied, “I am who am.”
Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you.”
God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites:
The LORD, 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.”
Today we hear one of the most famous passages in all of scripture: Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush.
Recall that when Moses was about forty years of age (Acts 7:23), he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and subsequently fled the country. He went to Midian, which was located in the northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea (in present-day Saudi Arabia). There he married Zipporah, the daughter of Midianite priest Jethro, and settled down to be a shepherd.
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.
The first forty years of Moses’ life were spent as a prince in pharaoh’s court, but here, he is presented as anything but a leader. Not only is Moses a lowly shepherd in the wilderness, the flocks he tends are not even his own.
The mountain of God, Horeb, also called Sinai, probably lies in the southeast part of the Sinai peninsula. Even today shepherds in that region will leave the valleys scorched by the sun in search of better pasture in the mountains.
Although we don’t know exactly where Mount Horeb is, it still had primordial importance in salvation history. On this same mountain the Law will later be promulgated (Exodus 19), in the context of another dramatic theophany. Elijah will come back here to meet God in 1 Kings 19:8-9. Horeb is the mountain of God par excellence.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to him
“Angel of the Lord” is often used as a reverential way of referring to God.
in fire flaming out of a bush.
The bush would have been one of the many thorny shrubs that grow in desert uplands in that region. The Hebrew term for “bush” is sneh, which is probably an allusion to Sinai.
Fire is often a feature of theophanies (e.g., Exodus 19:18, 24:17; Leviticus 9:23-24; Ezekiel 1:17), perhaps because it is the best symbol to convey the presence of things spiritual and the divine transcendence.
Saint Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:29: Our God is a consuming fire.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”
All the details provided in this passage help bring out the simplicity and at the same time the drama of God’s action. The scene is quite ordinary (grazing, a mountain, a bush), but extraordinary things happen (the angel of the Lord, a flame which does not burn).
When the LORD 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.”
The voice of God calling Moses by name is the most startling aspect of this experience. The repetition of his name stresses how important this event is.
This echoes a similar event from Genesis 22: But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.
God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
The spot, and in fact the entire mountain, was made sacred by God’s presence. See Exodus 19:23; 24:2.
At that time, removing one’s shoes was the equivalent of today’s gesture of removing one’s hat, a token of respect and submission.
I am the God of your father,” he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
The first part of the divine revelation is that the God who speaks is the very God who was worshiped by the ancestors.
God did not reveal God’s name to Abraham, hence this method of identifying himself to Moses some five hundred years later, around 1250 BC.
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Moses wasn’t afraid of the burning bush until he realized that God was in it. For who can look at God and live? (Exodus 33:20).
But the LORD 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. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians
Four very expressive verbs are used to describe God’s choice of action with regard to Israel: I have seen (witnessed)… I have heard… I know… I have come down to rescue. Notice how this sequence includes no human action. The initiative, as always, lies with God. He has seen and heard the cry of his suffering people (Exodus 2:23-25).
and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,
This phrase describes the salvific event that gives this book of the Bible its name: in Greek and Latin, “exodus” means “going out.”
There is an implicit reference to God’s omnipotence here. In the time of Moses, gods were associated with a specific nation or territory and only had sovereignty there. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not only revealing himself inside the borders of a foreign land (Midian), but he will release the Israelites from bondage in the land of Egypt and lead them into yet another land, the land of Caanan. God’s power and sovereignty is not limited by geographical boundaries.
a land flowing with milk and honey.”
An abundance of milk and honey is a sign of prosperity and peace. Bringing the people to the promised land will not only constitute a geographical ascent but also a journey toward plenitude.
In the scriptures, “honey” usually refers to date syrup, as wild bee honey was not common.
“But,” said Moses to God, “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?”
Moses asks for God’s name, not because he doubts but because a new revelation of God requires a new name. If God is doing something new (delivering an enslaved people), old titles would be inadequate. Giving the people the new name of God would not only authenticate Moses’ role as their leader, but it will also announce to them the mighty deeds God is about to perform on their behalf.
God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
The meaning of this revealed name (YHWH in Hebrew, a language without vowels) is multi-faceted. It is both clearly grasped and difficult to understand. Here are a few of the main interpretations of the meaning of YHWH:
- First, it conveys that God is not defined or determined by any being other than himself. As the self-existent One, he cannot be anything other than self-sufficient, and therefore all-sufficient: the inexhaustible fountain of being and bliss. In this sense, YHWH means “I cause to be all that exists.”
- It demonstrates God’s transcendence. Many people believed that they could control or manipulate a deity by using its name in magical rites. According to this interpretation, “I am who am” would be a somewhat evasive answer; it is equivalent to “I am he who you cannot know,” or “I am the unnameable.”
- YHWH is a causative form of the ancient Hebrew verb hwh (“to be”). God is revealing himself as “he who causes to be,” the creator, not so much in the fullest sense of the word (as creator of the universe) but above all the creator of the present situation. This denotes continuing action; thus the name literally means, “I AM always.” In this sense, the name also indicates that he is eternal and unchangeable, and always the same, yesterday, today, and forever; he will be what he will be and what he is.
It should be noted that none of these explanations is entirely satisfactory.
“This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is — infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the ‘hidden God’ (Isaiah 45:15), his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men (Judges 13:18)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 206).
The name was so holy, the Israelites refrained from pronouncing it, saying “Adonai” (i.e., “Lord”) instead.
God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.”
Lest the name I AM should amuse or puzzle them, Moses is further directed to make use of the more familiar name of God: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
The revelation of the divine name is important in salvation history because by that name God will be invoked over the course of the centuries.
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
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,
and all of them were baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was the Christ.
Yet God was not pleased with most of them,
for they were struck down in the desert.
These things happened as examples for us,
so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.
Do not grumble as some of them did,
and suffered death by the destroyer.
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.
Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure
should take care not to fall.
In today’s second reading, Paul undertakes a daring and complex method of interpreting Scripture in order to warn the Corinthians about overconfidence in their status as Christians. In it, he draws connections between the fate of the Israelites during the exodus and the Corinthians of his own day — a method of interpretation called typological exegesis.
However, Paul seems to be modifying the way that typology usually works: instead of using the past to predict or understand the present, he uses the present to re-interpret the past. His basis for this is his belief that since Christ is the end-goal of Israel’s history, he is also there in its beginning.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud
In Exodus, a divine cloud guided the Israelites out of Egypt and across the desert to the Promised Land. It served two purposes: it sometimes contracted itself into a cloudy pillar, shining on one side to show them their way, dark on the other to hide them from their pursuing enemies (Exodus 13:21-22); at other times, it spread itself over them as a mighty sheet, to defend them from the burning sun in the sandy desert (Psalm 105:39).
and all passed through the sea,
The miraculous passage through the Red Sea (Exodus 13:17-14:29).
and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
Both of these events prefigured baptism. These events joined the people to Moses and everything he represented, bringing them under obligation to Moses’s law and covenant — just as baptism brings us under Christian law and covenant.
“Paul says the Jews were under the cloud in order to point out that everything that happened to them is meant to be understood as a picture of the truth which has been revealed to us. Under the cloud they were protected from their enemies until they were delivered from death, analogous to baptism. For when they passed through the Red Sea they were delivered from the Egyptians who died in it (Exodus 14:28-29), and their death prefigured our baptism, which puts our adversaries to death as well” (The Ambrosiaster (between 366-384 AD), Commentaries on Thirteen Pauline Epistles).
All ate the same spiritual food,
A reference to the manna God provided to the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 16:1-36); sustenance of supernatural origin.
and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,
Moses got water from the rock at the beginning of the wilderness sojourn (Exodus 17:1-7) and again at its end (Numbers 20:2-13), therefore an oral tradition grew up claiming that this miraculous rock must have followed them through the wilderness. Paul certainly seems to have accepted this tradition.
There is no Old Testament record of the movement of the rock — it is recorded in Scripture here for the first time.
and the rock was the Christ.
Since God was frequently referred to as a rock (Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31; Psalm 18:3; Psalm 19:15), and since Jesus Christ is identified with God, Paul takes an interpretive step and claims it was really Christ who led the Israelites through the wilderness.
Just as the cloud and the Red Sea prefigured baptism, the spiritual food and drink in the desert prefigured the Eucharist.
Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.
Here is the point Paul is trying to make: these saving events (the cloud showing them the way, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of supernatural food and drink) were of no avail to most of the people of that generation.
Despite all the wonders that God worked for them, the people still grumbled, and so they were punished.
These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.
Since the Israelites were ancestors in faith, their history was an example for the Corinthians.
Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer.
Based on the story of the Passover (Exodus 12:23), many rabbis believed that there was a special angel of destruction, an executioner of divine vengeance.
“Those who were destroyed prefigured Judas, who betrayed Christ and was eliminated from the number of the apostles by the judgment of God” (The Ambrosiaster (between 366-384 AD), Commentaries on Thirteen Pauline Epistles).
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.
The messianic period is the final period in salvation history (Hebrews 1:1-2); the period in which the Corinthians lived (as do we). Even though they live in the “end of the ages” and their salvation has already been accomplished in Christ, it is not yet complete in them (or us).
Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.
Paul was illustrating to the Corinthians, by example of the Israelites, that receiving God’s wondrous gifts is no guarantee of God’s continued favor. The privilege of their Christian calling and initiation into its mysteries was, in itself, no guarantee of salvation — they would have to demonstrate their fidelity again and again. Christian life requires Christian living.
“Paul wants to remind us that we are not saved merely because we happen to have been the recipients of God’s free grace. We have to demonstrate that we are willing recipients of that free gift. The children of Israel received it, but they proved to be unworthy of it, and so they were not saved” (Origin (ca. 240 AD, Commentary on First Corinthians 4, 45, 2-5).
Gospel – Luke 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
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?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
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,
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?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”
The twofold lesson in today’s gospel is a sobering one. First, we must be prepared for sudden death by being reconciled with God at all times, for we never know what lies ahead. Second, while God may be patient with us and desire our salvation, he requires that we participate in maturing our own righteousness. We risk God’s judgment if we disregard his grace.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
An act of gross brutality: The Romans apparently murdered a group of people while they were at worship, engaged in the act of ritual sacrifice, so that their blood mingled with the blood of the animals they were offering.
We are not told how many victims there were; perhaps it was only a few, which would explain why this event is not better known. However, the brutality corresponds to the picture of a vengeful Pilate conveyed both in the Gospels and extrabiblical sources.
An example from the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus:
“So he [Pilate] habited a great number of his soldiers, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them [the rebellious Jews]. He bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly cast reproaches upon him so he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on; the soldiers then laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not, nor did they spare them in the least; and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded; and thus an end was put to this sedition.” [Antiquities of the Jews 18:3,2(61-62)].
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? By no means!
Believing there is a direct corollary between the character of one’s behavior and the circumstances of one’s life, the people of the time wondered what terrible things these individuals might have done to deserve such dire consequences (see John 9:1-2).
Jesus makes it clear that suffering is not punishment for sin, for God does not always punish sinners in this life (John 9:3).
But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!
Jesus isn’t saying that they might suffer the same fate, but that if something equally sudden and expected occurs to them, they should not be unprepared.
In other words, the Galileans had had no time to repent at the time of their deaths; we should be reconciled with God before disaster strikes so that divine judgment does not accompany any misfortune that may befall us.
All of us are sinners, meriting a much worse punishment than temporal misfortune. We merit eternal punishment, but Christ has come to atone for our sins, he has opened the gates of heaven. We must repent of our sins, otherwise God will not free us from the punishment we deserve.
“When you meet with suffering, the cross, your thought should be: What is this compared with what I deserve?” (Saint Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 690).
Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them –
Another tragic and unexpected incident, this time probably accidental.
The tower referred to was probably one of the towers that guarded the pool of Siloam, located in the southeastern corner of Jerusalem.
do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
Again, Jesus insists that the fate of those who perished was not related to their moral state.
However, note the repeated exhortation to repent.
“Jesus tells us that, without Holy Baptism, no one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:5); and, elsewhere, that if we do not repent, we will all perish (Luke 13:3). This is all easily understood. Ever since man sinned, all his senses rebel against reason; therefore, if we want the flesh to be controlled by the spirit and by reason, it must be mortified; if we do not want the body to be at war with the soul, it and all our senses need to be chastened; if we desire to go to God, the soul with all its faculties needs to be mortified” (St. John Mary Vianney, Selected Sermons, Ash Wednesday).
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, 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?’
In teaching this parable, Jesus stresses that we need to produce plenty of fruit (Luke 8:11-15) in keeping with the graces we have received (Luke 12:48).
Any unrepentant person in Jesus’ audience is like the fig tree he describes. They are not bearing fruit. No one knows how long they have to repent and bear fruit in this life; therefore, the time to repent is now.
Compare this fig tree to the bush in the first reading. Though the bush is burning, it is bursting with fruit: the presence of God. On the other hand, this fig tree is in full foliage but is barren. If we live with our roots in Christ, we will be secure and set aflame with his presence and love.
He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
While we do need to produce plenty of fruit, Jesus also tells us that God waits patiently for this fruit to appear. God does not want the death of the sinner, he wants us to be converted and to live (Ezekiel 33:11). As Saint Peter teaches us, God “is forbearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
But God’s clemency should not lead us to neglect our duties and become lazy and comfort-seeking, living sterile lives. He is merciful, but he is also just and he will punish failure to respond to his grace.
In this way God is like both the owner, who is just, and the diligent gardener, who is merciful and willing to give us time to repent. During this time that is so generously given, every means for fostering our repentance is provided. It’s up to us to avail ourselves of the opportunity and these means, for they are not endless. Final judgment is a reality.
The ultimate point being made is the inverse of the earlier teaching: just as suffering is not punishment for sin, sinners are not necessarily punished immediately in this life. This doesn’t mean God approves of their sin; rather, his patience shows he is merciful and they should repent while there is time.
Connections and Themes
I Am Who I Am. The personal name of God tells us so much and yet so little. If what we have learned about names is true, that they reveal something about the nature or character of the one named, then the nature of God is certainly shrouded in mystery, for the exact meaning of God’s name eludes us. Nor do the various ways God acts in our lives give us a clue as to its meaning. At times God’s behavior seems so paradoxical; at other times, contradictory. Is God capricious or just mysterious in relating to human beings?
Actually, the way we respond to God’s initiative and ever-present grace seems to influence the way God will continue to interact with us. In the matter of salvation, though the initiative and the transforming power are God’s, and salvation itself is a gift from God, we are not merely passive puppets in the drama. God gives the invitation, but that invitation must be accepted if there is to be any saving activity. This means that the ways God is experienced, though clearly determined by and under the control of God, are influenced by our dispositions. When we are needy, God comes as a provider; when we are frightened, God comes as comforter and strength’ when we are recalcitrant, God comes as judge and disciplinarian. God is a burning bush that captures our attention and plunges us into mystery; God is a gardener who cannot allow a fruitless fig tree to sap the life out of the soil that nourishes other plants. God comes to us in whatever ways we might need divine aid.
God sent me to you. One would think that a God as magnificent and powerful as ours would not need intermediaries. Or if they were used, they would be of greater value than bushes in a mountainous wilderness or hired hands in orchards. Yet that is just the way God seems to work. God uses whatever or whoever is at hand. This is true whether it is an element of the natural world that is normally indifferent toward humans, or an uncomplicated person whose only concern is to do his or her job well, or an individual who has been thrust by circumstances into the limelight. In every life there are those who speak for or act in the place of God. Lent is a time to discern who those people or things are. Who communicates God to us? Who intercedes for us before the Holy One? On the other hand, in whose life do we act as emissary? How do we reveal to others the message of God that we have received?
The rock is Christ. In the midst of this ambiguity, we have one sure source of stability: Christ. It is Christ who reveals the nature and meaning of the divine name; it is Christ who intercedes for us before God. Christ, the one who set his face toward Jerusalem, there to suffer and die, is the great messenger through whom God is revealed. He is the one who reveals majesty through the simplicity of a bush; he is the one who judges with the patience of a gardener.
Just as God sent Moses to free the enslaved Israelites from Egypt, God sent Christ to save us from the slavery of sin.
However, the limits of the experience and mercy of God in our lives are defined by our own openness. Despite the blessings we receive in the wilderness of our lives, it could happen that God is not pleased with us. We must not take God’s goodness for granted.
These readings close on a note of caution: take care! We are not told whether the fig tree actually ever bore fruit. We might be able to rest secure in the knowledge of the mercy and love of God, but these readings tell us we should not dare to rest passively or complacently.
Sunday Readings 