The Third Sunday of Lent (2025)
Jesus told them a parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’
The gardener said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
—Luke 13:6-9
The long “40 day” journey of Lent has often been used as an analogy for life’s spiritual journey. And for us Christians, this path has a specific destination and goal: the Cross and Easter’s Empty Tomb. These days of Lent are a time for us to recall that this “path of life” isn’t a meandering trail along which we leisurely stroll. As we travel along, the Readings this Sunday remind us there should be an urgency and sense of purpose to our journey.
Blessed Ramon Lull, a 13th century author and mystic, captured this sense of purpose in his writings. Raised as a courtier and knight, he was a brilliant man who took full advantage of his great wealth, enjoying a life of comfort and excess. Knowing what following Christ would mean, Ramon did not immediately welcome God’s call to deeper union and a life committed to the Faith. But he continued hear his “Beloved”—God—speaking to his heart, offering an insistent “Follow me.” And so, despite his fears and the prospect of significant changes in his life, Ramon gave himself over to what was being asked of him. Later, in his Book of the Lover and the Beloved, he mused:
“‘O you bird, who sings of love, ask my Beloved, who has created me to be His servant, why He torments me with love.’ The bird answered: ‘If love did not impose trials upon you, how then could you have proof that you loved Him?’”
Ramon Lull would eventually die as a martyr, but only after having dedicated his life and ministry to promoting both dialogue with non-Christian religions and to working for reform within society and the Church.
The quality of discipleship demanded by Christ—and described in this Sunday’s Gospel—certainly requires a sense of purpose and direction, but it also demands a profound humility and acknowledgment that we are in need of redemption. Whether we are a newly initiated Christian or a life-long disciple, Jesus’ call of “repent or perish” may be shocking, but it is also one that we all need to hear again and again. The novelist François Mauriac captured this truth beautifully in his novel, The Vipers’ Tangle:
“Most men ape greatness or nobility. Though they do not know it, they conform to certain fixed types, literary or other. This the saints know, and they hate and despise themselves because they see themselves with unclouded eyes.”
As we continue our Lenten journey, figures like Moses (in our First Reading), Blessed Ramon Lull, and so many other of our other spiritual ancestors remind us that obedience to God’s Will places demands upon us. But their stories also help us recall that God wants us and waits for us, calling us into his presence, to repent and to turn from sin:
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.—Psalm 103:8 and 11
O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness,
who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving
have shown us a remedy for sin,
look graciously on this confession of our lowliness,
that we, who are bowed down by our conscience,
may always be lifted up by your mercy.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Third Sunday of Lent
