We are well on our way into this season of Lent, and we are invited to deepen our faith and trust in God’s promises this week.
We are also encouraged to listen to Jesus and live as citizens of Heaven.
Our readings for the third Sunday of Lent call for repentance and returning to the Lord.
In the first reading, we recount Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. God longs for His people to return to Him and be set free from the chains of slavery.
He wants His people to enter into worship and communion with Him.
He knows that as long as they are in Egypt, they cannot truly live as His people.
In the person of Moses, God sent someone who would act on His behalf.
The psalm reinforces God’s kindness and mercy toward his people.
This is followed by the second reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. It reflects on the lives of those who did not respond to God’s call through Moses in the desert.
St. Paul warns us of the struggles they endured when they did not heed the encouragement of the one God sent to them.
Finally, in the Gospel passage, we encounter Jesus’ admonition to change our ways and His parable of the fig tree, highlighting God’s continuous efforts to help us grow and mature in faith.
The themes encompass self-reflection, the meaning of suffering, understanding God’s nature, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
This week, we focus on the next step of the Walk with One journey this Lent.
This next step is to intercede. As soon as the Lord lays someone on your heart, simply begin to pray for them!
Ask God to remove whatever obstacles are making it difficult for that person to draw closer to Christ and His Church.
Pray for the grace to be able to accompany them well.
The Holy Spirit may inspire you with faint impressions of how to pray for that person each day.
In Bishop Hying’s video this week, he reflects on the readings and the Gospel, and he teaches how all the Scriptures and different people in the readings act as intercessors for the people they are called to serve.
In the Old Testament reading, God appeared to Moses in the form of the burning bush and called him to act as the one to intercede before Pharaoh on behalf of God’s people.
An intercessor opens the door to freedom for those who are enslaved or far from communion with God.
God raised up Moses and He raises us up to work on behalf of his people.
In the Gospel for the third Sunday of Lent, the gardener “intercedes” for the fig tree and appeals to the owner to allow the tree to have more time to bear fruit in the coming year.
When we intercede for those with whom we “walk,” we act as that gardener did.
We bring before the Lord those for whom we pray and ask for the grace of the Lord’s patience and mercy upon them.
When we intercede for another, we call upon the Holy Spirit to begin to grow in them a new “flowering” of faith and curiosity.
Later in the journey, we will connect and invite them to respond to the grace that we have been praying for God to give them.
Interceding involves an act of faith and trust on our part, and on behalf of the loved ones we place in God’s care.
Perhaps it will be true for us that we “shall cultivate the ground around it . . . it may bear fruit in the future.” (Luke 13:9).
God does not give up on us or those for whom we are praying!
Michelle Nilsson is the director of evangelization and catechesis, and adult Confirmation, for the Diocese of Madison.