From the gospel: Light in darkness – Fr Carlo Calleja

Third Sunday in Lent, Cycle C. Today’s readings: Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9

The shocking images of the war that has been raging on for the past three weeks or so in Eastern Europe cannot but elicit a cry of lament. From the depths of our hearts a question also arises: why all this suffering? What on earth did these innocent people do to deserve all this pain?

Today’s gospel reading that makes us stare at the reality of suffering straight in the eyes. Jesus’s words ensure that we do not fall into the temptation of spiritualising suffering or of explaining it away. Neither does Jesus give the textbook reply that we use about suffering being due to our own wrongdoing. If this might be said for the example presented to him by his disciples – of when Pilate sacrilegiously mixed the blood of some secessionist Galileans with that of their animal sacrifices – Jesus gives them another example where such reasoning does not apply. The 18 men who died innocently after a tower collapsed on them cannot be attributed to human wrongdoing or sin, but only to a natural disaster, presumably an earthquake.

In both cases, Jesus offers the same reflection: “If you...