Readings and meditation on the Word of God on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 23, 2025

Delivered by the Vocationist Sisters in Labuan Bajo and Father Peter Tukan, SDB from Salesian Don Bosco Gerak in the Diocese of Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. Exodus 3: 1-8a.13-15; Rs psalm 103: 1-2.3-4.6-7.8.11; 1 Corinthians 10: 1-6.10-12; Luke 13: 1-9TIME TO RETURN TO GOD The theme for our meditation on this 3rdSunday of Lent is: A Time to Return to God. Time is one of the signs that warnsus about the opportunity to meet God. Sunday, for example, is a special timefor the faithful to gather and worship God. Lent is an opportunity every yearfor all of God's people to intensively and fully establish a relationship withGod through the acts of penance. Our time to encounter God can happen at any time andis very personal. God dwells in each of us and each person just needs toactivate awareness, calmness in heart, focus of mind and intimacy inrelationship to be able to experience moments with Him. We don't need to director lead God to come and meet at a certain place and at a particular time. It isprecisely we who provide time and room to meet Him and experience specialmoments with Him. Is meeting God an opportunity to return to Him? Isthis an opportunity for a person to repent from sins and evil acts? All of us aresinners when we meet God, whether on occasion with other believers orpersonally. But not everyone takes that opportunity as a time to return to God.There are still many of us who have not repented and truly experienced a newlife when they encounter God in prayer and worship. For example, a person was attending Sunday worship atchurch. He did not concentrate on every part of worship from opening toclosing. His mind was in chaos or running around. He did meet God while in thechurch, but he did not experience God's presence through the Word that entered andtouched his heart and consciousness. He was very burdened by the problems thatoccurred in his personal and family life. He did not receive Communion in thecelebration of the Eucharist on that Sunday. Any of us may not have repented and returned to theright path when we met the Lord. He is like a fig tree that does not bearfruit, which is ordered to be cut down. He was like the Israelites who werewarned by Moses to remember the Lord and return to Him. He is like theChristians who were warned by Saint Paul not to fall into sin like the ancientIsraelites when they were always against God's will. So, the time for us to return to God is at the time ofGod's warning or command to us to repent. If at this moment the warning isgiven and reaches our ears and hearts, that is the opportunity to repent.Delaying or rejecting it, then the moment or opportunity to change will be lost.Let us pray. In the name of the Father ... O Almighty God,strengthen our faith in every warning and call to return to the way, the truth,and the life, which is Your Son Jesus Christ and our Lord. Glory to the Fatherand to the Son and to the Holy Spirit... In the name of the Father...