March 7, 2021: Third Sunday of Lent

Throughout history, God has sought to save us when we went astray and bring us back into right relationship with Him.

Because He has saved us, He alone is worthy of our devotion, which He emphasizes in the first reading from Exodus stating the 10 commandments.

Jesus calls for a return to wholehearted devotion to God when He clears the Temple of commercial activity that was leading people astray from worshipping God.

When the Jews ask for a sign to assert His authority to act as He does, Jesus declares that the Paschal Mystery of His death and resurrection is the sign of a new covenant calling us into a new relationship with God more deeply from the heart.  While the Cross was an awful sign in the context of that time, by faith, we see it truly as the power of God to redeem and transform.

Lent is an important time of purification, so that we can remove what does not help us grow in God, and engage with those practices that do bring us growth in relationship with God.

We see in the Gospel reading an example of purification, in a rather forceful way, which is another way Jesus calls people to repentance.

This idea of purification reminds me of participating in a Native American sweat lodge ceremony, which is regarded as a purification ritual in their culture, and was also a time of prayer to God in a chapel.

Through purification, we can truly become who God has called us to be.

God desires us to grow in holiness from the heart.  Through the Paschal Mystery, He has freed us from sin and brought us new life, so that we may worship Him with a deep inward devotion and that is evident in our living.