Today’s Gospel passage seems strange for a Lenten Sunday, for it does not seem to focus our attention on Jesus. Its first part is found only in St. Luke; the parable of the second part is found in some form in the other Gospels. In the first 
part, we are told that one fine day some people bring Jesus some disconcerting news: Pilate had ordered some Galileans to be killed while they were offering their sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem. We are never told what these Galileans had done or what crime Pilate was charging them with to order their execution without trial. It is evident that Pilate did not respect either the sacred space of the temple or the most sacred moment of worship for the execution. But from the answer of Jesus, one can think that those who brought the news to Jesus were insinuating that those Galileans would be guilty of some crime or very serious crime to the point that God had allowed that the law of sanctuary was not respected for them, so that they would have been killed in the temple and while they were offering the cult.
But Jesus does not seem to be astonished by the news and denies the estimate of those who bring him the news. These Galileans were not guilty of a greater crime than any other Galilean. The misfortunes that befall a person are not an indication that he is more sinful than people who do not suffer any adversity. Do you think that those Galileans, because this happened to them, were more sinful than all the other Galileans? Certainly not. And Jesus adds another example of his own. He recalls an accident in which eighteen people had died when a tower collapsed in Jerusalem. Those people had the bad luck to be under the tower when it collapsed. It cannot be inferred that those people had more serious sins than the others. Those who remain unscathed in such catastrophes or accidents are just as guilty as the others. If you do not repent, you will perish in like manner. Twice Jesus repeats this.
Therefore, before those misfortunes, such as buses full of people that derail and fall into a ravine; people who are killed in a stampede or in a fire, victims of natural disasters, are not more guilty or have greater sins than the rest who are left alive. The comment that corresponds to these incidents is not: who knows what they would have done for this to happen to them. The corresponding reflection is: and if I had been there and it had touched me, would I have been prepared to give an account of my life before God? Those accidents and misfortunes that befall others should be a spur to reflect on one’s own life and repent of the sins, great or small, that we discover we have done. If you do not repent, you will perish in like manner.
And Jesus adds a parable of a barren fig tree, whose owner wants to cut it down. But the farmer asks the owner for patience. He is going to fertilize it and take care of it to see if it bears fruit. Jesus Christ, like the farmer, delays God’s judgment to give us time to convert and bear the fruit of repentance and good works. That is Lent.
St. Paul also exhorts repentance in another way. He reflects on the wonderful events that the Israelites experienced when they left Egypt, which did not suffice for them to complete the journey to the Promised Land, but perished in the wilderness. I do not want you to forget that in the wilderness our fathers were all under the cloud, all crossed the Red Sea and all submitted to Moses, by a kind of baptism in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same miraculous food and they all drank of the same spiritual drink, because they drank from a spiritual rock that accompanied them and the rock was Christ. Those Israelites experienced the
presence of God in the cloud and were saved from Pharaoh by crossing the Red Sea in a wonderful way. It can be said that they received in advance a baptism like ours. They also participated as if in advance in the Eucharist, for to eat of the manna and drink of the water from the rock was an anticipated communion with Christ. But in spite of these experiences, they murmured and criticized God in adversity, coveted and coveted what was not due. The same thing can happen to us Christians. All these things happened to our ancestors as an example to us. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Let us not trust that we have received the sacraments, that we come to church, that we pray the rosary daily, if our conduct does not correspond or conform to God’s will, for we bear grudges, nourish envy, act out of greed, are seized by lust, harbor hatred, exude violence, grow in pride and appear vain. God accepts our rites, sacraments and pious acts, which are not superfluous, but necessary; but they must be accompanied by an upright, holy and honorable life. Otherwise, they do not save us. Therefore, it is time to convert and turn to God’s will. That is what Lent is for.
The first reading moves in another register. It is the narration of God’s manifestation to Moses and the revelation of his name and his saving will. Moses had to flee from the court in Egypt and was exiled in Midian. There he married. He shepherded his father-in-law’s flocks. One fine day when he arrived near the mountain of God, a holy mountain, he saw a strange phenomenon in the distance: a bush was burning, but it was not burning, it was not consumed. As he approached to take a closer look, God spoke to him. He identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He manifested to him his intentions to deliver Israel from slavery and suffering and to bring them to a good and spacious land. Moses would be the executor of this divine will of salvation. In that sense, Moses would be a precursor of Jesus, the executor of God’s definitive salvation
. But Moses needs to know God’s own name, the one that reveals his identity. He has been the God who accompanied Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but he must have a name that reveals who he is. God grants the request and reveals his name, which means I AM. He is the God who was, who is and who will be. He is the God who remains, when all things pass away. He is the God who is always turned towards his people to save them. He is the God who is the creator of all that exists and the redeemer from sin and death. He is the God who sent his Son into this world, so that all who believe in him may rise from the dead and obtain eternal life. He is the God who sustains our hope.