February 28, 2016 Sunday, 3rd Sunday of Lent 1st
Reading: Ex 3:1–8a, 13–15 2nd Reading: 1 Cor 10:1–6, 10–12 Gospel: Lk 13:1–9
One day some persons told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple: Pilate had Galileans killed and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this? I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.
“And those eighteen persons in Siloah who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jerusalem? I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”
And Jesus continued with this story, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the gardener: ‘Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree and I have found none. Cut it down, why should it use up the ground?’ The gardener replied: ‘Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some fertilizer; and perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it doesn’t, you can cut it down.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
In the Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, Philippines tragedy of February 17, 2006, some students and teachers were trapped inside their classrooms, which were buried under mud due to landslide. Some victims may have attempted to send text messages before they died. An unconfirmed report said that upon excavation, the SIM card of a cellular phone recovered from a lifeless body had this unsent message: “Y man g.apil q silot n Lrd?” (What have I done to deserve this punishment from God?)
Most of us struggle with the same question when tragedy strikes, as if all sufferings are forms of punishment from God. The Catholic Catechism teaches us that sufferings are the wages of sin. But this is not supposed to be a sweeping categorization of all sufferings as punishment for sins. Consider, for example the sufferings of a child born with infirmity because the mother had attempted to abort him. His lifetime suffering cannot be attributed to his sins. He is only a victim of the sins of his mother.
But today’s Gospel makes an important caveat that we can eventually perish as a result of our sins if we refuse to repent. The reason is not God’s wrath but comeuppance. We bear the consequences of our own wrongdoing. If continued sinning is the source of our sufferings, blaming God won’t help. The sure way out is to turn away from sins to avoid the wages of sin. — Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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