3^rd Sunday of Lent (C) March 7^th, 2009 Have you ever considered what will become of us in the next 100 years? Where will we be? A better question might be, How will we be? What will our condition be? Will we be working or resting? Will we be happy or will we be suffering? The point is that we will not be alive on Earth in the next 100 years. We will have died by then.

Today the second reading and the Gospel talk about people who have died. The readings also talk about the faith of those people. One of the readings says that even though they were witnesses of miracles, “Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert”. About the others, it was said that they were sinners, no more or less than other ones.

Jesus said: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”. Jesus helps us understand the meaning of the readings better. All of us know that death is normal and natural. Does Jesus mean to say that we will die because of our bad lives? If that were true then those great saints would never have died, so this clearly cannot be what He means. Rather, Jesus is referring to another kind of death.

Now I'll ask my first question, again. Where will we be in 100 years?

Jesus invites us to repent so we can prepare the way to life. Repentance means several things, including self-reflecting upon our own lives. We need to be mindful of our good and bad deeds. Repentance also means doing something to fix our mistakes - repenting. We need to regret and ask for forgiveness. Why repent? We must repent because God called us to be fruitful, like the fig tree planted in an orchard. God is the owner of the orchard. He gave us life with many gifts. We are the trees he planted. Like every normal tree we are supposed to bear fruit. The gardener is the Church who with its sacrament cultivates the ground and fertilizes the tree, which is our lives. Trees need to be pruned, and like fruit trees, we need to repent so that we can bear more fruit.

In 100 years, where will we be? The sacred Scripture does not speak a lot about our future life. The scripture only says that it will be wonderful, great, and amazing. However, the scripture does say that this time, right now, is the time to bear fruit. This is the time to repent even though we are embarrassed or ashamed of our sins. This is the time to pray like the responsorial Psalm: The Lord is kind and merciful. Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.