HOMILY FOR THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT (C)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. Forty- five years ago tomorrow, in a small South American country called El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero, the leader of the Church and defender of the poor, was assassinated as he celebrated Mass. He was canonised a saint on 14th October 2018. On this third Sunday of Lent, I believe that his life captures much of the wisdom of the today’s readings and his words challenge us to do what Jesus asks us in the Gospel – to embrace Lent as a time of repentance and change by loving the poor.

First, God hears the cry of the poor and involves us in his response to help them. In the first reading, God said to Moses: ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt…I am well aware of their sufferings…I mean to deliver them out of the hands of Egyptians’. But then God shocks Moses by involving him in his plans to set his people free from slavery. There were many poor in El Salvador in the 1970’s. There were many injustices and many dangers. Faced with these, Oscar Romero had a choice. He could have stayed silent and safe but betray his mission. Or he could have raised his voice for those who had no rights and risked death. Like Moses, God placed this shy man in the middle of a desperate situation and asked him to speak out on behalf of the people, to become involved. Although his voice was silenced by a bullet 45 years ago, his words led to change, to hope and to inspiration that has not lost its power even today.

Like Moses and Oscar Romero, God involves us in leading people out of slavery of any kind. God hears the cry of the poor. So should we. God is angry when people are trodden down and abandoned. So should we. God is angry when people are homeless. So should we. In the words of Romero: ‘A prophet has to be angry with society when that society is not in accord with God…the Church was put here to convert humankind, not to tell people that everything they do is all right…Let’s not try to make Christianity to suit our tastes. Let’s not try to tame the Gospel, rather let us conform ourselves to the Gospel and try to follow the authentic Christ’.

This Lent, Trocaire highlights the cry of the poor whose lands are either parched or flooded because of climate change. Yet, hearing the cry of the poor is more than just putting money into the Trocaire box to help change lives. It is also about our lives being changed by becoming involved, asking questions and being challenged by the plight of the poor. We are called to conversion and change. Jesus did not mince his words in the Gospel today: ‘Unless you repent, you will all perish’. This is why our involvement with the poor changes them but also changes us and challenges our life-styles, attitudes and curbs what St Paul calls in the second reading ‘our wicked lusts’ for things that we want but don’t need.

Friends, our call to become people of justice and to hear the cry of the poor is rooted in our faith in God. Moses began to lead the poor after his encounter with God at the burning bush. So too with us. It starts with prayer, with coming close to the fire. In the words of Romero: ‘God is joy, God doesn’t want sadness, God is optimistic, God is all powerful to do good and to love. Who can be sad given a God whose presence fills everything…And when you receive communion at Mass, you receive fire. We ought to leave breathing joy with the strength to transform the world’.

St Oscar Romero, help us to hear the cry of the poor as you did. Help us not to be afraid to change by allowing the plight of the poor to disturb us. Please pray for us on this anniversary of your death and birth to eternal life. Amen’.