Throughout the Lenten season, we’ll be posting reflections for holy days and Sundays. These reflections are taken from this year’s Lenten reflection booklet, “Return to me with all your heart” which includes all-new reflections written by Ralph McCloud, and from previous Lenten reflection booklets, like the one below, written by Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson in 2004 for that year’s Lenten booklet, “Transforming encounter, radical discipleship: A Lenten journey.” Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2025 webpage.
reflection for THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT, MARch 23, 2025
by Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
originally published in 2004
Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 | 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 | Luke 13:1-9
In the midst of this Lenten journey, we come out of the wilderness to feast together on the Sabbath. As we reflect on the invitation and the challenge of the journey, it may seem we have too far to go. It may seem we are called to the impossible. It may seem that we are all alone.
In the Word from Exodus this day, we see the immediate presence of God and the ineffable mystery of God’s transcendent power. We remember: When we “turn aside and look,” we will see God revealed in the “ordinary” right beside us. We will hear God calling out to us to pay attention, to listen. We will know that the place we stand – right where we are – is holy ground. For God is immediately, tangibly present with us. All ground is holy ground, if we are attentive. God yearns for us to enter into God’s presence in this moment. Holy ground: Where we turn to God, stand in reverent availability, ready to respond to God’s call.
Then YHWH said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings.” (Exodus 3: 7) God sees, God hears. God knows. God is with us. God is available to us. God’s power to act, to deliver us and all God’s people, is undeniable and beyond our comprehension. This is our unchanging Hope.
Will we turn aside and look?
Click here to see more resources for prayer, study and action this Lenten season.
>> Join the Pax Christi USA community on Monday, March 24, for the third of this year’s weekly Lenten prayer services over Zoom. Click here for more information and to register.
The despondent, the resigned lack faith. Those with a desperate hope based on vibrant faith will reach out to the grace burning around us. (Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” Ilia Delio and company would say, we live in the Divine Milieu of Infinite Energy. We need only say, please–and trust that God will help us move according to our gifts.)