Think about times you have lost something and, after looking high and low, finally discovered it. Perhaps you said to yourself, "that is the last place I thought of looking for it!" Keep this experience in mind as you reflect on the readings for this, the third Sunday of Lent.
In the first reading, we are given commandments as God's signposts to discover Him. The other two readings make clear that the commandments were but the beginning of our way to God. Something more was needed if we were to mature in our knowledge and love of God. The last place God's people thought of looking for a key to this mature growth was a cross. But a cross, as it turned out, was the key.
The truth is that we, like the Jews and the Greeks, look for Jesus in spectacular deeds and words of worldly wisdom. A true understanding of Jesus is to be found in an unlikely place - in the mystery of the cross.
