March 3, 2013: 3rd Sunday of Lent (C)
This past Friday, a parishioner and I went to visit a 4th grade class at the Ascension Catholic Primary School to ask them to sign up to be altar servers. We took vestments, a chalice, and bells to do a sort of a show-and-tell. I said to them that it’s a great privilege to be at the altar because it is where Heaven and Earth meet. I told them we use special vestments and special vessels designated for the altar because it is holy ground; just as Moses in the First Reading was told by God to take off his shoes, the altar area that we call sanctuary is a sacred place to which we bow and genuflect because the King of kings and the Lord of lords is there. Many children in the class shared their personal experience of seeing angels, Blessed Mother, and saints during mass. I wonder how many of their parents brushed off such experiences as simply a child’s imagination? Surprisingly the children also shared how they encountered these holy persons and saints outside of church, in their daily lives.
In the First Reading today, God appears to Moses, not in a temple, but in the wilderness. He appears, not while Moses was praying, but while he was minding his sheep. It was in this secular place, and while he was engaged in a secular task, that God made his presence known to him. The lesson in this passage for us is that God is present with us even when we are away from the church, and God desires to make our ordinary time and place His holy ground.
What then is the significance of the burning bush? If God desires to make our ordinary time and place His holy ground, He wants us to be like the bush which burns with the fire of His love. His fire of love does not leave us tired, exhausted, or burdened. His fire is the supernatural love that helps us to be patient, kind, gentle, and compassionate. His fire of love allows us to believe in all things, hope in all things, and endure all things. When we burn with the fire of God’s love, like the burning bush attracted Moses, we attract others to God.
In contrast, we often find ourselves burning with self-love. Self-love leaves us and those who approach us tired, frustrated, and exhausted. Sometimes self-love takes the form of negativity--being gloomy, pessimistic, sarcastic, and cynical. Selfishness is at the center of this negativity like a vortex of fire, and it consumes those who approach us. You heard the term, “Negativity feeds on negativity.” How many of us join a cynical or sarcastic conversation, only to find ourselves speaking sarcastically or cynically, often twisting what is positive into a negative light? Also, self-love takes the form of self-pity. How many times have we been tempted to self-pity, hoping that others will pay attention to our suffering, our ills, and our victimhood. In comparison to the fire of redemptive love and suffering of Jesus on Calvary which attracts all to the generous self-giving love of the Heavenly Father, these self-centered flames do not give life or attract others.
What a great privilege for us Catholics to have opportunity to be so near to the altar every week where we experience the fire of love of Jesus! But what good is that if we are not that holy ground outside of the church? How privileged we are to be a burning bush for God, to attract others to Him by burning with fire of His love!
