In the First Reading for this Sunday, God reveals his name to Moses, saying, "I am who am" (Exodus 3:14). At first blush, the name might sound evasive or dismissive, as if God didn't really want to give his name. But a closer consideration shows that God's words to Moses convey a deep philosophical and theological meaning.
God doesn't just exist. He is existence itself. He is being itself. The world exists only because God wills it to exist. All of reality is rooted in God's existence.
But, we might ask, did God create evil too? Did God bring evil things into existence along with the good? The answer is that God created a completely good world. But through our free will, we have marred God's creation. All that is evil now was good in the beginning. Evil has no being in and of itself but is a corruption of what was once good.
When we sin, we corrupt the beautiful soul God has made for each of us. But though we can mar God's gift, we can never destroy its existence. Each of us, good and evil alike, will exist for eternity.
But God offers us more than just existence. God offers us life as well. What is the difference? In God, there is no difference between the two. But in our condition there is a major difference, which we might define as follows. Existence is to just be. Life is to be with God, to be imbued by his being, which is infinite love.
As I have often discussed in my reflections, we are born with a fundamental inner hunger, an existential yearning, which only union with God can satisfy. Nothing in this life can fully quench that essential thirst.
If we try to live without God, we will not have true life but will merely exist, always feeling a deep emptiness, a profound lack of satisfaction. God has made us for his love, to be eternally completed and fulfilled by his love. But he won't force us to choose his love. The choice is always ours. If we accept his love, we will have eternal life with him. If we turn away from his love, we will exist eternally without the only thing that can give us peace, joy, fulfillment, satisfaction.
As the Apostle Paul emphasizes throughout his letters, we receive true life from God by accepting Christ, who is God Incarnate. As we see in the Gospel of John, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. In the Second Reading for this Sunday, Paul also highlights an important principle of biblical interpretation. All of the work of God in the Old Testament period was preparation for the coming of Christ. The entirety of the Old Testament points toward Christ.
Throughout his letters, Paul has one key theme - that the only thing that matters is Christ. Our entire life should revolve around Christ and nothing but Christ. If Christ is in the center, then everything else in our lives will fall into its proper place. Whatever gets in the way of our relationship with Christ we should jettison without delay or hesitation.
As our Lenten journey continues, let us open our hearts to Christ more and more completely every day. As the Gospel reading for this Sunday indicates, we will know how well we are following Christ by the good fruits we are producing in our lives. Let us strive to be the tree that bears an abundance of good fruit.
At the same time, let us also strive to be the gardener from the Gospel passage, who seeks to help the tree yield fruit. Through our words and actions, we can help others embrace Christ, we can help them choose that which they yearn for with all their being, even if they don't realize it. For the rest of the Lenten season, let us focus on how we can help others be open to Christ's love and thereby receive eternal life.
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The readings for the Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle C, are:
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Ficus carica by Piotr Frydecki from Wikimedia Commons.
