Reflection/Homily:
Third (3rd) Sunday of Lent Year C (March 3 2013)
Theme:
The Word of God: A Divine Catalyst
Those days in the
secondary school, we were taught that a catalyst is a chemical substance that
facilitates a chemical reaction and is itself unchanged during the chemical
reaction. In other words, we can say that a catalyst is an unchanging substance
that is capable of initiating a change in another substance. Under the field of
science, we can find catalysts like Manganese dioxide which is used to
decompose Hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water, we can also find sulfuric acid
which is used to dehydrate Ethanol to Ethylene, etc.
A more familiar example
of a catalyst is heat. Heat is used to speed up a number of chemical reactions
but at the end, it remains unchanged. Importing this idea into our context, we
can also consider a spoken word as a catalyst in the sense that it goes from
the speaker into the hearer to transform the hearer but in itself it remains
just a spoken word. In this sense, we can then analogically talk about the Word
of God as a Divine Catalyst. This Word comes to us as a gift from God to
instruct and transform us into what God wants us to be, but this Word remains
unchanged.
In the first reading
(Exodus 3:1-8.13-15), we see the function of this Divine catalyst in the life
of Moses. He was pasturing his father-in-law’s sheep when the Word of God came
to him in an encounter with God in the burning bush. This Word transformed him into
a messenger of God and a liberator of the Israelites. He was instructed by God to
carry this unchanging Word of God and change the circumstances of the people of
Israel in Egypt from being slaves to the chosen people of God. To prove the
unchanging nature of God and His Word, God identified Himself as “I AM”.
