Third Sunday of Lent

 The Gospel tells us about the fig tree used in a parable the did not bear fruit for three years. The owner was telling the gardener to cut it down, but he said, "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." 

Now, I have a really good story about a fig tree. I went to Coquimbo in the poorest region of Chile with a desert climate. The only tree in the community backyard was a fig tree. It had not yielded any fruit in previous years so the community thought it was miraculous that it suddenly bore fruit abundantly the first year I arrived. Since we were really poor and the five of us were living on the salary of what one workman would earn when I arrived, those figs were a gift from heaven. 

To just tell you the readings for this Sunday as some might want to look at them at home, the first reading is from the Book of Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 and is about the burning bush and God speaking to Moses and telling him that he had come down to rescue the people from the Egyptians. Then God tells Moses that "I am who am."

Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord is kind and merciful."

The second reading is from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12

Gospel is from Luke: 13: 1-9

Sometimes the Gospel is that of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well.  John 4: 5-42