Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 3:1-8a,13-15 1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 Luke 13:1-9
Parishes have personalities and the faithful frequently travel well beyond the physical boundaries of what would be their home parishes to find a community with which they identify. Generally, they are searching for a liturgy and community with which they feel they can most identify. They look for music with which they are familiar and for people whose faith-emphasis seems most like their own. I am always happy when I learn that they find themselves back where they started — in the church next door. Still, their search was not in vain. They found something they did not know they needed — a new appreciation for diversity. Those who once objected to the person occupying the last pew and fingering a rosary during the liturgy begin to appreciate the faith of that person. Those who looked with horror at those who attempted to introduce any liturgical innovation begin to be grateful to those who can articulate faith in a way different from their own expression. They begin to see that faith in the Risen Lord can be expressed in a variety of ways.
More and more Catholics feel a need to incorporate this diversity into their own lives. They learn that those who know only theological words are impoverished when they cannot use pious language. They discover that the Church needs tradition and a growing knowledge of Church thinking. We are slowly learning to be grateful to one another for our varied relationships with the Lord. What was once seen as better or worse is sometimes only different. This is part of the kindness and mercy for which we praise the Lord in today’s liturgy.
The personalities described in today’s readings could not be more diverse. God cautioned Moses to remind the people that he was not only their God but also the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Our God is the God of all who believe in him. Even Paul recognized that he stood on the example of the community that preceded him.
Christians bring a variety of riches to the Church. We bring the intensity of our own relationships with the Lord. Obviously, the community has difficulties. Often, a closer examination reveals that what might seem a lack of faith is simply a distrust of those who express their faith differently.
Just as poets need those who express themselves in prose, the Church needs both tradition and growth in theological understanding. The artistic community would be arid were it only comprised of artists or poets or dramatists. The Church would be poorer if it only included one kind of faith expression.
At this liturgy, we are called to treasure those who revel in the traditional and to safeguard those who look for new expressions. Most especially, we are called to love and worship the Lord who brings us all together in a symphony of praise.
