God’s presence is in His word.  When the readings at Mass are proclaimed, the words are alive and active.  It is vital to our spiritual lives to listen and understand the readings at Mass.  
The homily’s purpose is to explain and apply those readings to our lives.  Even though the season of Lent is the same each year calling us to repentance and change, the readings are different, following its own unique theme.
 
Normally, the first reading from the Old Testament at Sunday Mass relates to the Gospel of the day.   Sunday Old Testament readings during Lent, however, highlight major events in salvation history.  How God reveals Himself over time to His chosen people and sets the world stage for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
 
In the first readings this year we heard on Ash Wednesday the prophet Joel and his call to repentance and fasting.  Last Sunday we heard the haunting and powerful story of The Fall of Adam and Eve.  Today we hear about the call of Abraham, our father in faith.  How God chose Abraham to be the father of a great nation.  Next Sunday we will hear about Moses and the water from the rock, when the Hebrew people challenged God.  After the great figure of Moses, we will then read from the Book of Samuel about the anointing of David as King.  Then on the Fifth Sunday the famous prophecy of Ezekiel and the Valley of dry bones.  Then as we begin Holy Week on Palm Sunday, the Suffering Servant from Isaiah.
 
All the readings focus on the covenant between God and humanity, the ups and downs of the relationship between God and the Hebrew people, and through it all God’s consistent loving plan to save us.
 
The Gospels this year are from St. Matthew.  We began on Ash Wednesday with the teaching of the Lord regarding Prayer - Fasting – Almsgiving, the three spiritual practices of the season.
 
Last week, the First Sunday in Lent, we heard the story of the Temptations of Jesus in the Wilderness.   The account of the Temptations of Jesus is always proclaimed on the First Sunday of Lent.  Today is the story of the Transfiguration of the Lord, always proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Lent.  The three apostles, the future leaders of the early Church, experience for a brief moment the Divinity of Christ.
 
The Gospels for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays of Lent are different each year.  This year we will hear the profound and long Gospels relating to Jesus’ encounters with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, the Man Born Blind, and the Raising of Lazarus.  These three Gospels come from St. John’s Gospel; and have been used on these Sundays from the 5th century if not earlier.  All three of these Gospels’ theme will be aspects of the mystery of baptism.
 
As we hear them, notice our Lord’s encounters and conversations with the various people; they are speaking and listening on two levels.   Our Lord speaks of heavenly things while the people He meets are preoccupied with the earthly. Our Lord takes them from here to there.
 
On the Third Sunday of Lent, we will meet the Samaritan Woman at the Well.  Listen to the conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria about water that quenches ‘thirst’. The Baptismal theme here is Water.   Then on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the story of the Man who was born blind. The Baptismal theme here is light.   How do we ‘see’?  On the Fifth Sunday of Lent - the Raising of Lazarus from the Dead.  According to St. John’s Gospel, this event was the last straw for the Pharisees and religious leaders.  Jesus must be killed.  The Baptismal theme here is Resurrection.
 
The readings this year are so rich for us.  You will always get more from the Sunday readings if you are able to read them beforehand. I strongly suggest if you could, arrive 10 minutes before Mass and just spend some time reading them.  Even if they do not immediately mean a lot to you, the fact that you have seen them will make a difference when you hear them proclaimed at Mass.
 
God continues to speak to us through the Scriptures, He has a unique message just for you today.