Third Sunday of Lent (B)

March 19, 2006

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

The first two Sundays of Lent told us of the covenants God made with Noah and Abraham. On this third Sunday of Lent, we are introduced to the covenant that God established with Moses. With each successive covenant God expands His promises to humanity and gradually begins to unveil the mystery of His plan of our salvation.

 It is obvious from the first reading today that idolatry – the worship of false gods – is the worst sin there is. And by not getting the first commandment right means we get everything that follows dead wrong. 

If we were to be totally objective about ourselves, and were to look at the bottom line of what motivates us, we would find a “pie chart” where the “one God” is supposed to be. It would probably show that 50% of our living and life goes to our own comfort and security. Another portion going to what people think, to worldly success, to caring for those we love, and later down on the list is the caring for those we don’t love, the avoidance of final damnation, and doing the right thing no matter what the cost. 

It may well be that we spend more time focusing on the moral demands of the rest of the commandments – not killing, not stealing, not committing adultery, and so on – because in actuality, they are much easier to fulfill than is the dedicating of our lives to the one God. 

In the gospel today we hear how Jesus “needed no one to give him testimony about human nature. He was well aware of what was in man’s heart.” We have a natural tendency to spend more time, more energy, and to give more priority to everything else in our lives than we do to God. Yet, the 1^st Commandment we heard today was “I am the Lord thy God; thou shall have no other gods besides me.” 

Our immediate reaction is probably, I don’t worship idols or false gods. But the fact of the matter is, when we devote more time and place more importance and give greater priority to all the other areas of our lives, than we do on our relationship with God, than it can be precisely that, a worship of false gods. 

When we love someone – a spouse, a child, a parent, a family member, or a close friend – don’t we want to know all we can about that person? Aren’t we willing to sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of that person? Don’t we want to spend all the time we can with that person? Well, what about our relationship with God? To know in scripture, is not a matter of the head but of the heart: to know is to enter into communion with the one known. If we ask to know God’s ways, we must be prepared to take on those ways. 

The fourth commandment is – “Honor your father and mother, that you may have long life.” God is our real Father in the truest sense of the word, and the life he offers us through Jesus, is nothing less than everlasting life. But do we really and truly honor God with our lives? Is God present to us and are we really present to God? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves during this period of Lent – a time when we are called to a conversion – a reform in our lives; a time when we are to take on a new attitude and form a new direction in our living and life; one that is directed toward a deeper and more loving relationship with God. 

In today’s Gospel Jesus angrily casts out of the temple all those who were merely there conducting business, rather than offering true worship to God. Jesus is the sign of God’s presence among us. His words in today’s gospel, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it,” means that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been made holy and have become the true temples of the Holy Spirit, where God is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth. It is said, “Where a person’s heart is, there is their treasure, also.” What we need to ask ourselves is: where does my treasure lie? 

The Blessed Virgin Mary is our greatest example to imitate. When she was told that she was to bear the child Jesus in her womb, she responded, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to thy word!” Mary said yes, even though she well knew that under Jewish law, to be with child out of wedlock could mean death by stoning. But Mary was willing to make the supreme sacrifice of her own life, if need be. It is obvious where Mary’s heart was, and what her treasure was - the love of God and the willingness to do his will, regardless of the sacrifice or consequences involved.  This was the central and primary motivation of Mary’s living and life. There was no worship of any idols or false gods. There was worship only of the “one God.” 

We are now half way through Lent. Our celebration of Lent is not simply an attempt to improve our behavior. It is a quest to renew our hearts. It is at the level of the heart, where we feel, where we understand, where we believe, it is there that we meet the Lord, and it is there that the Lord changes us. A good and constant prayer life is important for us, because it is what feeds our spirit. Our reflection on the things of God is important because it helps us understand ourselves, our actions, and our words. Our attentiveness to the Word of God makes us aware of God among us. 

Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, once said when asked the question, that the first and greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second was like it: “thou shall love your neighbor as your self.” On these were based the entire law and the prophets as well. 

What the Lord God asks of us is to hold him in awe, to love him and serve him with all our heart and soul.  And we accomplish that when we love our neighbor, for the one who loves his neighbor fulfills the law, for the whole law is summed up in love, and to love is the fulfillment of the law.