Sunday the 1st of March 2026 - The Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 12:1-4a/ Ps 33(32)/ 2 Timothy 1:8b-10/ Matthew 17:1-9

What would you do if you got a call from someone you love and trust, a best friend, parent, brother, or sister, asking you to do something without explaining fully what it is, or why it needs to be done? All they say is that they need you to trust them. Knowing and trusting them you say of course you will do whatever they ask. They then tell you to leave your job, sell the house, and move to an unfamiliar place.

That would be a challenge, even with someone you know, love, and trust. You are being asked to walk away from everything you know, all you have achieved at work, the home you had built over many years. We would surely need assurances, guarantees, before taking such a drastic life changing step. Now imagine that this call is not from a trusted friend or family member but from God. This is what happened to Abram in the first reading. This is what the call to discipleship is, God calls us all to follow him, to do his bidding rather than to fulfil our own desires, or to chase after the temptations of the world. Can we say that we answer God's call to us the way Abram answered the call to him? Can we leave everything behind, our familiar lives, homes, security, comfort, and step out into the unknown? Abram answered God's call, without a map, without a destination, without a guarantee of what lay ahead. Just a voice, a promise, and a call to trust.

This moment of decision is the meaning of Lent, the meaning of the readings today. God calls us, we are invited to respond, and our response will lead us into a life that costs us something. We live in a world that has made comfort its highest value. Our culture works tirelessly to eliminate every form of suffering, every inconvenience, every difficulty, and when suffering cannot be avoided, our world increasingly offers a darker solution, not healing, or hope, but death itself as an escape. This is not the message of the Gospel, not what we are called to, it is the opposite.

Saint Paul, writing to Timothy from a prison cell, did not say, wait while I find a way out of this. He told us to take our share of hardship for the Gospel. God has called us and saved us, not because of anything we have done, but because of his own grace, a grace given to us in Jesus before time began. Our redemption is a free gift, we cannot earn it, we do not deserve it. Jesus paid the full price of our sinfulness through his suffering and death, and he offers us that redemption for free. Our response to that gift should not be passive, we are invited to enter into it, to join our own suffering, in whatever form it takes, to the suffering of Jesus. Not because our suffering saves us, it is the suffering of Jesus that saves us, but because when we offer our pain, our sacrifices, our Lenten disciplines in union with Jesus, we are saying with our whole lives, that what Jesus did for us matters, we want to be part of it. That is love responding to love.

Abram understood something of this. He did not know where he was going, but he knew who was calling him, and that was enough. The Psalm we prayed today says it clearly, Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. This is the response of a disciple, not requiring certainty about the road ahead, but trusting in the God who travels that road with us. Peter, James, and John were confused about everything Jesus had been saying of his pending suffering and death. Jesus took them up a mountain and gave them something they desperately needed, a glimpse of his divine nature. His face shone like the sun, his clothes become dazzling white, Moses and Elijah appeared, the voice of the Father thundered from a bright cloud announcing; "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

For a moment, the veil was pulled back, and the disciples saw who Jesus really is, they saw the glory that lies on the other side of the cross. Peter, overwhelmed, blurted out what was in his heart: "Lord, it is good that we are here." Peter did not fully understand what he was saying, but he responded to what he saw. We have the same opportunity to say those words at this, and every Mass we attend. When the priest raises the consecrated host above the altar, when the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is lifted up before us, we are standing at our own moment of Transfiguration, we are not seeing Jesus in dazzling light on a mountaintop, we are seeing him under the appearance of bread and wine, but it is the same Lord, the same beloved Son, the same one who suffered, died, and rose again, the same one who calls us by name to follow him. Our response should be that of Peter; Lord, it is good that we are here.

During Lent we fast, pray and give alms, even if the world around us sees no point in it. This is why we say yes to God's call when, like Abram, we cannot see the destination. Because we have been given a glimpse of the glory that awaits. We know that the suffering of this life is not the end. We have heard the voice of the Father say that his Son is beloved, and we have heard that same Son say to us, "You are mine."

Lent is not about punishment, it is about preparation, allowing God to strip away whatever keeps us from seeing clearly, so that when we stand before the altar, when we receive the Body of Christ we can say with full hearts, Lord, it is good that we are here. Let us respond to God's call with the courage of Abram. Bear our share of hardship with the faithfulness of Paul. Let us keep our eyes fixed on the glory that Jesus has already won for us. The call has gone out, the grace has been given, all that is needed is our yes.

God Bless Brendan