Third Sunday of Lent

Day in Memory of Missionary Martyrs

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch The Reconciliation of Those Excommunicated
Mass: Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15; Resp Ps 103; 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12; Lk 13:1-9 or readings for Year A: Ex 17:3-7; Resp Ps 95; Rm 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42

I am who am.

Sir, leave the fig tree 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.

Reflecting on the patience and mercy of God, I remembered an interview done by Andrea Tornielli with Pope Francis published in 2016 during the Year of Mercy with the title The Name of God is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli. In his conversation with Mr Tornielli, Pope Francis recalled a time when he was in Buenos Aires for a large Mass for the sick in the presence of the statue of the Madonna of Fatima. The Holy Father related: I was "there to take confession. Toward the end of the Mass I got up because I had to leave, I had to celebrate a confirmation. That’s when the lady appeared, elderly and humble. I turned toward her and called her abuela, grandmother, as we do in Argentina. ‘Abuela, do you want to confess?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied. And since I was ready to leave, I said: ‘But if you have no sins …” Her answer was swift and immediate: ‘We all have sins.’ ‘But maybe the Lord can’t forgive them,’ I said. ‘The Lord forgives everything.’ ‘How do you know?’ ‘If the Lord didn’t forgive everything, our world would not exist.’”

THE LORD PARDONS ALL YOUR INIQUITIES.

I also referred to the Prologue of the Holy Rule where St Benedict writes of the patience of God who waits for us to repent: "The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repent (Rom 2:4)? And indeed the Lord ensures us in his love: I do not wish the death of the sinner, but that he turn back to me and live (Ezk 33:11)." (RB Prol. 35-38)

MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS IS THE LORD, SLOW TO ANGER AND ABOUNDING IN KINDNESS.

Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

Repent and believe in the Gospel.

We pray especially for those preparing to enter the Church at Easter who today receive the First Scrutiny: that they will remain faithful to the Creed of the Church all the days of their life. (Magnificat, Prayer of the Faithful, March 24, 2019).

Today we celebrate the Day of Memory of Missionary Martyrs, a motivation to witness with courage to our faith and to our hope in Him who, on the Cross, conquered hatred and violence with His love forever. 

(Pope Francis, Twitter, March 24, 2019)