A very good way to look at Lent is to see it as a time of promise—the promise of the fulfillment of God’s love for us. In Lent we do acknowledge our human weakness, but we do that in the light of God’s complete love for us. And we journey through this time with Jesus, who has fully assumed our humanity with all its sufferings and trials.
Our Gospel this Sunday allows us to witness the mysterious transfiguration of Jesus: a revelation of his glory and divinity shining through his humanity. Though it might appear that Jesus is exempt from the path of suffering and the powerlessness of our human state, what he tells his companions on the way down the mountain is that this glory can only come through his journey through suffering and death—and the full story will not be complete until he is raised from the dead—and we learn who he truly is.
In our second Reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (perhaps the most beautiful and hope-filled promise in Scripture) Paul says that there is nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God—nothing!
No matter the circumstances of our lives, the powers of division and hatred that seem to threaten us now, he proclaims the overwhelming confidence that all trials we endure are encompassed within the faithful love of God and are part of the eventual realization of God’s divine purpose for us and all of creation. Yes, Lent is a time of promise and unconditional love.
Fr. Len Kraus, S.J.
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