Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection March 23, 2025

23rd March 2025 (Sunday)

Psalter: Week 3

Reading of the Day

First 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.”

Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11 (R. 8a)

R/. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

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.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

V/. Repent, says the Lord; the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

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.’”

Daily Gospel Reflection

Third Sunday of Lent

Opener: Repentance is the soul of the holy lent. It is both the condition and the sign of the true following of the Lord. It also becomes the criterion for God’s judgment

1. “Unless you repent, you will perish”, warns Jesus in today’s gospel. He repeats this twice, in reference to those Galileans killed by Pilate and those killed under the tower in Siloam. Thereby, he makes it clear that all those who commit sin and do not repent will meet a similar fate. Lack of repentance will expose us to God’s judgment.

2. Here the point is not that God judges and punishes us; rather that we must repent and change our lives. So the focus is not punishment and destruction but repentance and saving life. In fact, there is no true discipleship without repentance.

3. Jesus begins his public ministry with the call to “Repent”: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4. 17); “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1. 15).

4. The call for repentance forms the crux of Jesus’ redemptive mission: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5. 32). And there are several strong calls for repentance all through Jesus’ teachings (cf. Lk 11. 32; Lk 10.13; Lk 17. 3-4; Acts 20.21). And today’s warning fits into this context.

5. But what is this repentance? The basic sense is “being sorry, or grieved” for something that has been done. Both the Hebrew term, naham, and the Greek term, metanoia, contain this sense of “feeling sorry” and “regretting”.

6. But it is not just that, and goes further. True repentance is not a mere passing feeling sorry for the wrong. It is not a disturbing sense of remorse. Repentance is not a depressing sense of guilt. Guilt and remorse are negative while true repentance is something positive.

7. True repentance is elevating, relieving, and assuring. True repentance is deep anguish and pain, over a life of inadequacy, offense, and deviation, against God and others. It is a deep stirring within, being touched to the core, and struck with deep anguish over one’s own sinfulness.

8. Repentance is an about-turn of a whole way of living, in determination and dedication. Repentance opens up a radical change of life, both in spirit and in action. Therefore, sincere repentance would mean a “change of mind, change of ways, change of life”. This concretely implies both “turning away from evil” and “turning to God”.

9. This turning to God implies a profound encounter with God as Moses had at a burning bush in Exodus. It is personally experiencing the living God who reveals Himself as “I am who I am”. Our God lives not only because He has existence as His very essence.

10. But He lives in the lives of His people. He intervenes in their lives. He makes them live because He lives. How He is present and acts in the lives of His people is conveyed by some strong and personal verbs that God utters.

11. God declares: I have seen their affliction; I have heard their cry; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them and to lead them to the Promised Land. Therefore, true repentance makes one personally experience this intervening and liberating, and restoring love of God.

12. This personal experience of God forms the foundation for repentance. And a converted life becomes the test and testimony of repentance. In the light of the gospel, this effect is nothing but a fruit-bearing life. If we are truly repentant, then we must become productive and bear abundant fruits. Repentance without fruits will be a contradiction!

Direction: Awareness of God’s love, one’s own sinfulness, and a changed fruitful life are the ways and signs of a true repentance