2nd Sunday of Lent – Year A

Deacon Tom Vert

Preached: March 1, 2026

“May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.”

So, we need to ask, “For what do Christians hope? People look at us and ask, “Why are Christians so hopeful and joy filled, even when they are challenged and struggling with all the things going on in this world”? How do they still have hope when everything seems to be negative? What vision do they cling to that gives them peace and joy in the storms of life?

This question could be one that was asked of Peter, James, John and the other apostles after Jesus ascended into heaven and the Romans and Jewish authorities were both persecuting them aggressively, and yet we know they went out a proclaimed the gospel message of good news continuously for all to hear.

The three key apostles I am sure would have had a vision of hope in Jesus glorified in heaven as they saw with their own eyes on the mountain in Israel, shining brighter than any white they had ever seen, and the voice of the Father ringing in their ears “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The vision of heaven which Christ promised, the gift of eternal life, is one that should also be a motivator for each of us as we go through our own struggles and see the chaos in the world today.

For what do we hope…I would argue that we Christians hope to encounter and be transformed by Christ’s self-sacrificing love both here in the present world and eternally in heaven after our death.

This generates our spiritual energy and allows us to give a living witness of God’s love in the world and by this witness, as people see our lives, brings others into God’s loving embrace.

The Catechism tells us that “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness…and we hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will”

This definition is good, however, it doesn’t tell us what eternity will be like so we can envision the goal, and it doesn’t tell us that if we embrace this vision, how should we live now when humbly accepting this great gift?

Now, let us start with the goal…what we are striving for and what life will be like in eternal glory, that we call heaven. And heaven is what we truly hope for St. Paul tells us, that “If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The best place to start is the mystery of heaven’s greatness that St. Paul tells us about “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

People can agree that it will be amazing, so the next question about heaven that normally comes up is what will we be like? Will it be just our souls or our bodies or some combination of these.

The beautiful image St. Paul gives us in the first letter to the Corinthians is of a seed which is sown and then grows into a stalk of wheat. “The image of the seed is an image of radical transformation” that continues from what was before in the seed but emerges as something entirely new and spectacular!

We are also told by Paul that “the new body will be everlasting, glorious, constituted in power, and above all a spiritual body”. These images give us hope for something much better than the present, but we are not exactly sure what!

So, there is a heaven, and we will have transformed spiritual bodies with our souls! If we have this knowledge of Christ’ promise for us, and the joy that our eternal life is foreshadowed by Jesus’ own Resurrection, then we should have hope and as Pope Benedict says, “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life”

When we truly live this way, as “agents of love” in the world, we are a living witness of God’s love in the world and by this witness we bring others into God’s loving embrace and thereby bring the kingdom of God into the world here and now not just after we die.

We are the hands and feet of God in the world today and we as Christians are called to accept this mission of love in the world, and we know we can do it as we sang in the psalm “May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.”