Fr Leslie Miranda
| | FRUITLESSNESS | | Ex 3:1-8a,13-15 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12 Lk 13:1-9 | | March,07 | | 3rd Sunday of Lent | At the commencement of World War II, one parish saw three parish priests within four months. The quick changes were due to one priest following another into the concentration camp. One of the three priests was a German. For two successive Sundays he started his sermon: Si paenitentiam non egeritis omnes similiter peribitis. The priest’s Latin may have been good, but his English was poor. His German English rendered the Latin quote into turn or burn. He often repeated in his sermon, turn or burn.
For a long time parishioners remembered him as Father Turn or Burn. Today’s sermon is about “turn or burn”. In good English it should be “Change or Perish.” The Gospel renders the Latin quote as follows: “Unless you repent you will all perish.” Referring to the fig tree in today’s Gospel it is clear that the fig tree must change (turn), produce fruit or |
| it will be cut down (burn).
Jesus preached repentance. Twice in today’s Gospel Jesus says: “Unless you repent you will all perish.” The repentance theme dominates both the second and the third readings of today’s mass.
The Gospel tells us that some people arrived and told Jesus, the Galilean, about the slaughter of the Galileans. This incident is not known to us from any other source. However, the story fits well into the character of Pilate. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that Pilate was capable of such cruel acts. That the worshippers’ blood had been mingled with the sacrificial blood was terrible. So Jesus makes His point clear, that these Galileans had not been singled out for massacre because they were worse sinners than others in Galilee. Jesus then adds another incident: It is the sudden death of eighteen Jerusalemites on whom the tower fell at Siloam. This ...Contd. | | |
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