"God's Burning Love for You" - 3rd Sunday of Lent Homily

my senior year at Gonzaga.

I went on the Kairos retreat.

It powerful four-day retreat with my classmates.

About 50 of us went.

It was probably more emotional than spiritual.

We talked about our feelings for four days.

Yeah.

But we bonded in that with each other and with the Lord.

And the fourth day came and there was all the kind of mystique with Kairos, the secrecy, up over the theme to live the fourth.

And so finally the fourth day comes, we're about to finish the retreat, and we finally, I finally learned what it meant.

The fourth day, to live the fourth meant to live out the retreat.

Now we're sent out to continue these friendships, continue the bonding.

We didn't really continue the feelings sharing as much, but we developed them or developed the friendships.

So the sense of an ongoing retreat, that even today, 36 years later, I think about, am I living the fourth?

Am I continuing those friendships and being the man that I'm called to be, you know, was from a young age?

I think the same is happening in this Gospel.

When Jesus presents this parable of the fig tree, and there's talk of a fourth year, three years, hasn't done anything, hasn't born any fruit, they're ready to cut it down, and then

I think the gardener speaks of saying, one more year, to cultivate it, to fertilize it, that it bears fruit in the future.

And so this represents, very possibly, Jesus' three years of ministry on earth.

And there were some, as we know, that were not open to Him.

And so it was fruitless, receiving in their souls.

And we can picture Jesus as a gardener, maybe saying to the Father, let's try one more year.

One more year and I'll cultivate the ground and fertilize it, that bears fruit in the future like the next 2,000 years, meaning the Church.

That we could be living the fourth year of this gospel throughout the history of the Church.

And look at all the Lord has done for those years in our lifetime as well to cultivate the ground.

The question of exhausting the soil, can think of souls.

The Lord cultivates our souls from very young age with baptism, grows the faith, fertilizes with the Eucharist, bears fruit in all the different ways of the kingdom.

So this sense of ongoing, this fig tree was about to be cut down and Jesus came in and said, no, no, no, no, one more year and it's ongoing in the Church.

Ongoing as a theme in the first reading, the famous scene of the burning bush.

But what may not be as well known is when God, in this scene, reveals His name.

I am who am.

May not be the most catchy or creative name we've ever heard in this age of non-traditional first names.

Like whatever happened to naming kids after saints?

That was a pretty good practice.

He reveals himself as I am.

Yahweh.

I am who am.

And we put the two together.

The burning bush and I am.

It means that God is always there and his heart burns for us.

Always.

I am who man means God saying this is my name, this is who I am, I'm here.

Always here for you.

And Moses is presented to the people.

So it's not just God declaring himself and that's it.

It's like tell the people that I'm here for them.

He even says I know well what they are suffering.

And having gotten to know God over the years, I would say I know this, that the bush burns the most when his people are suffering.

But this burning bush is a symbol for when your and my faith is getting small, getting dark.

We have this image of an ongoing, remarkable sight, a bush that's burning but not consumed.

It's a miracle.

It represents his burning love for his people.

And when you're doubting that love, think of the burning bush, the eternal flame.

Give it the same context as I am who I am.

I'm always here, I'm always burning for you.

For you.

Now what we do with that, we run into the problem, and I think our society is maybe more guilty than any before, of judging God.

and saying, He's not with me.

He's not caring for me.

He's not loving me anymore.

He's punishing me.

We judge God.

think He's against us.

And Jesus gives a couple examples saying you might be wrong, you've got to be careful with judging God anyway.

But these people who are judged as being, you know, they're suffering so much because they sinned so much.

And these two examples with Pilate and the blood and the tower, and Jesus says they were no more guilty than anybody else.

Suffering isn't always a result of one's own sin.

There are innocent victims.

And God became one.

He stepped right into our suffering because of that burning love for us when we're suffering, especially.

But we should relent in our judgment of God.

We should relent of our judgment of neighbor.

And as St.

Paul and Jesus say in these readings, focus on ourselves.

to repent ourselves.

And in the context of these readings and in the season, it means to be open.

To let God grow you.

He gives this parable of the fig tree about, in the context of repenting, He wants to do the growing, the cultivating, the fertilizing.

Let Him do it.

Like soil just lets it happen to all the growing and the fertilizing and so forth.

When I first got here four years ago, one of the first things I learned is physically, naturally, we have the greatest soil on this property in Montgomery County.

like rich soil, that's just a cool thought.

But I also realized quickly in this parish, it represented you.

rich fertile soil.

and open.

Open for cultivating, open for fertilizing, and you see the result.

What He's done through you.

My goodness, we have a perpetual adoration chapel.

Talk about ongoing eternal flame.

It's like a burning bush on our property for Jesus.

That's the cultivating you've allowed Him to do.

That's the growth you've allowed Him to make happen.

So, relent from judging God.

Know God.

Know what the burning bush means, that He's always there for you.

His heart burns for you, day in and day out.

You and I cannot change that.

We don't want to change it.

There aren't too many people around us about that we can say.

We might get to the point where I only have Jesus.

Jesus, you're the only one who's always there for me.

That burning bush is only true of you in my life.

Hopefully not, but for some of us that's the experience occasionally or regularly.

Don't forget the burning bush.

Because He's always there, He doesn't change, and His love and His fire for you.

So relent in judgments and repent, which means let God grow you.