Third Sunday of Lent - Cycle C

Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15
1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12
Lk 13:1-9

“I have heard the cry of my people who are being oppressed…Therefore I have come down to rescue them.” So God speaks to Moses in today’s first reading. We enter now into a more intense period of Lent, preparing those who are to be baptized, and preparing to renew the vows of our own baptism. We reflect on the central mysteries of our Faith, to better celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord. The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, as well as the Paschal Mystery – that is, the central events of the Old and New Testaments -- are both about God rescuing his people who are being oppressed. Our forefathers were oppressed as slaves in Egypt and rescued through the waters of the Red Sea. We are oppressed by sin and death, and are rescued through the waters of baptism.

Yet the rescued must also rescue. The saved must also save. We cannot turn to God for mercy and be deaf to the cries of others for mercy. One of the three key Lenten activities is “almsgiving,” because it symbolizes this basic truth about living our faith all year long. We are not allowed simply to look at God and thank him for rescuing us, individually. We are, rather, to let our gratitude become service, directed at rescuing others. This is the fruit of which Jesus speaks in the Gospel passage; this is the repentance he seeks of us.

God’s name, as revealed to Moses, is “I AM.” It does not only mean “the fullness of being.” It means “I am here FOR YOU, to rescue and save you.” The same words are spoken by God when he is announcing that he will rescue his people from their captivity in Babylon (see Isaiah 45) and when Jesus announces the liberating effects of his passion (see John 8).

In our day, these reflections show us our obligation to rescue the most vulnerable human beings of all, oppressed by abortion and euthanasia.