Ex 3:1-8, 13-15 / 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 / Lk 13:1-9
The son of a poor widow struck it rich, and he wanted to do something special for his mother. So he went to a pet shop and asked for the rarest, most expensive pet in the place. The owner showed him a rare parrot that could recite the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer in English, Latin, and ancient Aramaic, and it was only $50,000.
“Nothing’s too good for my dear mother,” said the man. So he bought the bird and shipped it to her. The next day he called her. “Did you get the bird I sent?” he asked.
“I surely did, son,” she replied. “Thank you, dear boy. It was delicious!”
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We don’t always see things very clearly! We miss so much, especially the good stuff. Too often we’re just like that old woman who never realized all the nifty things her parrot could do.
God is not like that. What do you think is the first thing He sees when he looks at us? It’s exactly what any good father sees, and that is all the good that’s growing in His children and all the things we’ve already succeeded in getting right.
God sees all this and wants us to see it too. He wants us to see that in so many ways most of us really have been getting better. And why is it so important for us to see this? Because there’s still a lot of work, a lot of growing up for all of us.
God doesn’t want us to lose heart. He wants us to know that, with His help, we can open the next door without being afraid of what we’ll find. Whatever we find we can work on together, just as we have in the past.
Much of what remains for us to do is still invisible to us — though probably not to those around us. So Jesus is urging us in today’s gospel to take a closer look at ourselves. “Re-pent,” He says, which means, “Re-think what you’re about.”
He’s not asking us to complete our whole life’s work in the next thirty days. He IS saying that for each of us, there is a door that needs to be opened now. There is in us something specific that’s ready to be re-thought, re-formed, and re-shaped now.
If we pay attention, the Lord will show us what that is. And He’ll give us the wisdom and the courage to walk through the right door and to do what needs to be done there.
So listen carefully. Let Him take you by the hand. Walk with confidence through that next door. You’ll be glad you did, because your life is about to get a lot better!