Readings: Ex.
3:1-8; 1Cor. 10:1-6; Lk 13:1-9
Lent
is A Time To Change Our Minds
1.
There is a story about a man named Bill, a
prominent contractor. Over time, the pressures of his business led him to turn
to alcohol. Before long, he separated from his family, and his company went
bankrupt. One day, while walking down the street, Bill happened to look down
and saw a bent, rusty nail on the sidewalk. He thought to himself, “That nail
is a perfect picture of me. I’m rusty and bent out of shape, too. I’m good for
nothing but to be thrown away, just like that nail.” Bill stooped down, picked
up the nail, and put it in his pocket.
2.
When he got home, he took a hammer and
began to straighten the nail. Then he used sandpaper to remove the rust.
Afterward, he placed the restored nail alongside a new one and could hardly
tell the difference between the two. A thought flashed through Bill’s mind: his
life could be straightened out and cleaned up just like the nail. But he knew
it wouldn’t be easy. Could he endure the hard blows and sanding? He decided to
try. Today, Bill is reunited with his family and has returned to the
construction business. He owes everything to that old, rusty, bent nail he
found on the sidewalk at just the right time. To this day, he keeps the
restored nail in his wallet.
3.
Today’s liturgy reminds us that our God is
a God who gives a second chance to His children. In revealing His name to
Moses, He assured the children of Israel that He is the God of the living; He
is always present and accessible to His people. He is “The Lord, a
merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity”
(Ex. 34:5-7). In the first reading, God revealed His name as ‘Yahweh,’
translated as ‘I am who am.’ He said, “This is my name forever;
this is how I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”
According to the Psalmist, “The Lord is kind and merciful.” God,
the great I Am, is a merciful God. He loves us so much that He doesn’t judge us
as we deserve; instead, He gives us a second chance when we fail, allowing us
to come back to our senses and return to Him. His mercy is not merely a
concept but a transformative power that can straighten and cleanse our lives,
just like the nail in Bill’s story.
4.
Jesus encourages us in the Gospel to take
advantage of the many opportunities God has given us to change our minds. Those
who died in tragic circumstances were not necessarily worse sinners. Their
deaths should prompt us to repent and believe the Gospel. This is what we
promised on the day of our Baptism: to reject Satan and all his works and to
believe in God. Through the natural and political disasters of His time,
Jesus illustrated the fragility of life and called for a life of repentance. He
uses the story of the gardener to highlight God’s patience and offers us
precious opportunities to be saved: “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” (Lk. 13:8).
5.
The call to repentance is not solely
an invitation to turn away from our sinful ways; it also calls us to produce
the fruits of good living and holiness. God’s mercy is infinite,
but we are finite beings. We do not have eternity to change our minds. “If
today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:7-11). If we
fail to bear fruit, we should heed the warning: “For three years now, I
have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but found none. So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?” (Lk. 13:7). This image of the
unproductive fig tree illustrates how it drains resources and deprives other
productive trees of nourishment. It must be cut down so that others can thrive
and be nourished. This emphasizes our role in nurturing others; if we are
not enriching the lives of those around us, we are taking away from them. We
must be givers, nurturing and enriching the lives of others.
6.
Repentance means a change of heart,
attitude, and mind. It is not just a suggestion but
essential for our spiritual growth. We can change our minds in both small and
big ways. We can shift from being inactive to active, from not praying to
praying, from being uncharitable to charitable, from being sinful to sinless,
from being unmerciful to merciful, from neglecting to attend Mass regularly to
making it a priority, and from not bringing our children to church to ensuring
they are with us. Lent is not just about receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday
and palms on Palm Sunday. It is not only about fasting, abstaining from meat,
and eating fish on Fridays. It encompasses all of this and more. It provides us
a golden opportunity to change our minds, repent, and turn back to God.
7.
At various points in our lives, we
have been like the fig tree, in danger of being ejected and rejected as
useless. But God’s mercy, the Great ‘I Am,’ took pity on us
and granted us a second chance. Like Bill, we must be grateful to God for His
mercy and our second chance. Let us
receive God's mercy and stop complaining about the misfortunes of our lives,
for Christ made it clear that accidents and sickness are not punishment for
sins but a great opportunity to repent and change our minds. As God gives
us a second chance, we must also give a second chance to others and help them
grow in love, hope, and trust. May we see the bigger picture of God's plan in
our lives and worship him in spirit and truth! Amen.
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