Invitation to Conversion

3rd Sunday of Lent - Year C (24 March 2019)

Ex 3:1–8, 13–15. Ps 103. 1 Cor 10:1–6, 10–12. Lk 13:1–9.

“Unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”

Whatever happens in our life, it has got a meaning. God has a message through everything that is happening right now, right here. Nothing happens by chance. There is nothing that can escape God’s concern. Our God is a God of history.

In today’s gospel reading, we see some people who tell Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. They could have thought (and we too could), “Those guys must have been done something wrong to deserve an untimely death; this is surely a punishment of God.” But Jesus answers them (and us), “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Jesus does not give a political interpretation of the above events, but a spiritual interpretation. In effect he says, “What happened invites you to conversion!” This is the deepest meaning of history, a constant invitation calling us to turn our hearts to God and so discover the full meaning of our lives.

Jesus’ words are truly an eye-opener for us. Jesus does not look at the events of our times as a series of incidents and accidents that have little to do with us. He sees the politicial, economic, and social events of our life as signs that call for a spiritual interpretation. They need to be read spiritually.

We need to interpret reality like Jesus. In our ongoing search for meaning, we need to keep reading books and newspapers in a spiritual way. We need to keep interpreting reality in a spiritual, wholistic way.

What is happening around us in our country and in the world invites us to conversion. It is all about connecting the dots. Conversion or transformation is a constant invitation for us. “Unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did,” says Jesus. Whenever we talk of a corrupt politician or a terrorist or a fundamentalist, we say they need to be destroyed, they need to change their ways. But what Jesus says is something upside down. Whenever I happen to meet a “bad” person, I need to change. We need to be the change that we want to see in the world. Our perception of history changes radically when we start interpreting the events of our time as invitations to conversion. Whatever happens outside-there has a definite link inside-of-ourselves! (This might be an oversimplification of what quantum physics and quantum biology are saying: The observer necessarily changes the content and results of an experiment.)

In sum, we need to be converted again and again. We need to be born again and again and again. Repentance and transformation have to go hand in hand with life. Like the Jews in the gospel, who thought they were sinless and in good standing with God because they had been spared death in a local massacre, we can fool ourselves into feeling that all is well. We also can imagine that we are in good spiritual shape and have no need for repentance precisely because no calamity has come our way. The absence of misfortune does not mean the presence of virtue.

Moreover, Jesus expects our lives to be fruitful: to perform good works and God’s works. The Lenten invitation to repentance is not only a call to turn away from evil but a plea to produce the fruits of good living. The biting question is whether our love of God is evident in our treatment of others. Charity begins at home! Are we more sensitive to our spouse, our children and other family members? Do we care for the sick and the poor? We can meet God by caring for the poor, the sick, the old and the lonely. All of us have received a tremendous amount from others. How concerned are we about giving something in exchange? Reaching out to others in need demands getting out of ourselves and putting aside our selfish ways.

The warning about the unfruitful fig tree is not given to frighten us but to remind us that the time for doing good is limited and is fast running out. We cannot keep putting off good works indefinitely, otherwise there will come a time when there is no tomorrow and we will be found wanting.

Let us accept Jesus’ invitation to repent and return to God. The Lord is full of merciful love. He crowns us with steadfast love and mercy. (Ps 103)