3rd Sunday of Lent
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
TV Broadcast and Live-streaming
March 23, 2025
The Burning Bush and the Barren Tree
The Scripture readings for this Third Sunday of Lent draw a sharp contrast between the burning bush Moses encountered in the desert, and the fig tree Jesus describes in his parable. One is brimming with life. The other is alive but fruitless. Let us take a second look at the burning bush and barren the fig tree, and take to heart the message they convey.
The Burning Bush
As our first reading opens, Moses is tending his father-in-law’s flocks. Things had not gone well for Moses. He killed an Egyptian who was assaulting a fellow Israelite. Pharoah heard about it and wanted to bring him to justice. After fleeing, Moses became a shepherd with no idea of God’s plans for him. Prompted by God, he led his sheep into the desert, to Mt. Horeb or Sinai. There God revealed his glory to Moses so as to prepare him to lead his people from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land.
While in the desert, Moses saw a burning bush not consumed by the fire. Naturally, this got Moses’ attention, so he took a second look. It was then that he experienced a theophany: a vision of God and an encounter with God. From the burning bush, God called Moses by name. He revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who saw the afflictions of his chosen people in Egypt, and was now calling Moses to lead them out of Egypt to the promised land. At this, Moses was overcome with awe but he also had the presence of mind to answer, pleading ignorance of God’s Name; it went something like this: ‘When I tell the Israelites that their God sent me to do the impossible, and they ask me, “What is his name?” – then what shall I tell them?’ In reply, God reveals his deepest essence, his nature, his character. “If they ask who sent you, tell them, “I AM” sent you, “I AM WHO AM”:
Let us learn with Moses the greatness and glory of God! God borrows existence from no one. God’s nature is to exist. God is eternal: the God who is, who was, and who ever shall be. God is life itself and the source of all life, divine and human. He is the One God who is entirely true and good and beautiful, the God who draws close to us, who loves us, who saves us, the God on whom entirely depend and to whom owe everything.
You’ll pardon, I hope, the long windup. For what I want to draw attention to is the burning bush in the desert brimming with life itself, afire with the presence of the divine, ablaze with divine glory, the revelation of God’s very essence. As Moses gazed at that bush, he was drawn into God’s presence, and began to possess something of God’s power, glory, and goodness. He began to exist in it, to live in it, to hold fast to it. Only thus could Moses be for his people a prophet and leader like no other … No longer do we gaze upon a burning bush but we do gaze upon the tree on which Christ was crucified, Jesus who is the “I AM” of the Father, Jesus whose heart burns with love for us. Let us exist in his love. Let us live in it. Let us hold fast to it!
The Barren Tree
Turning to the Gospel, we see a dramatically different scene. No longer are we in a desert but an orchard. We are privy to a conversation between the owner and his gardener. The tree they are discussing is entirely unremarkable. It was apparently healthy but failed to produce fruit year over year. Finally, the owner’s patience grew thin: “Cut it down,” he said to the gardener. “It’s taking up space and the wearing out the soil.”
Notice, the burning bush existed in a barren desert where survival is difficult, but the fig tree in a verdant orchard where fruit-bearing conditions are optimal. Notice too that the fig tree looked healthy but was actually barren – and what does this mean for us? It stands for those who seem to be spiritually alive but are in fact spiritually inert, lukewarm, and thus spiritually fruitless. It stands for those who profess the Faith but without producing the good works of faith. God is very patient with us and will do everything possible to save us. But our time on earth is limited. Our opportunity to convert and to bear good fruit is fleeting. So, the fig tree speaks to us of urgency: Thus the message heard at the beginning of Lent reverberates: ‘Now is the acceptable time, now the day of salvation!’ (2 Cor 6:2).
The barren fig tree can also stand for anything in the Church’s life that appears to be healthy but is in fact spiritually dead, such as ministries that may seem to do good work but fail to evangelize, or secularized church institutions coated with only a thin veneer of faith. This is the question is to be asked relentlessly of anything in the Church’s life: Does it evangelize? Does it form missionary disciples? Is it bearing Gospel fruit?
In today’s Gospel, the gardener offers to fertilize the barren tree in the hope that next year it would bear fruit. The Word of God holds out the same offer to us this morning. The Lord offers to nurture us spiritually, to nurture us at root of our being, so that we will indeed bear the good fruit of the Gospel. But where does the fertilizer come from? How is it applied to the root of our existence? And what is the fruit we are to produce?
If we were to ask St. Augustine, he would say that our spiritual roots and the roots of the Church herself are in heaven, whereas our foliage and its fruits hang down over the earth. Our roots are watered and nurtured by the stream of divine life flowing through the City of God. Our fruitfulness lay hidden with God, the God of the burning bush, the God whose Son was crucified for us, the very God who comes to meet us in Word and Sacrament. The fruit we have to offer is not our own; it is, rather, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, namely, charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity…These are the good fruits the Lord is looking for in each of us. Half-way through Lent let us hear again the message: “Now is the acceptable time! This is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 2:6).