Heaven in our eyes, on our lips?

A glimpse of the basilica

Homily Outline for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

This Thursday I had the beautiful opportunity to spend my day-off at Holy Hill. This is the beautiful shrine with a long official name: The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady, Help of Christians. It’s on a big round hill near Milwaukee and it’s run by the Discalced Carmelite Friars. If you’ve never been there, you need to visit it! I met one of my seminary classmates from Chicago. Thursday evening we were waiting in the hallway near the refectory for dinner to start. An elderly Carmelite Friar came up to us… after introductions he paused and said with wonder and excitement in his voice, “I wonder what heaven’s like?” We discussed this, and I could hear the awe and quiet joy in his voice. He questioned us on some points of doctrine as if we were back in seminary, and was content when we answered well!

Heaven is no theoretical question… it’s not something we should push off to the sidelines of our lives. Our gospel this Sunday complements last Sunday’s where we heard of the temptations of Christ in the desert. Three times he rebuffed Satan. Fr. Jamie spoke in his homily of the full reality of Christ’s divinity AND humanity. Jesus in His humanity was tested and found to be true during that trial in the desert. Unlike Adam and Eve, unlike each one of us, He NEVER fell to temptation. He felt the pain and fear and struggle of rejecting sin, and stood strong and true. In taking on flesh, Jesus raised and lifted up our humanity, and rejoined us to God. In Christ, we need never face temptation alone. So here is one piece of the pie: In Christ, we are given strength resist evil.

The Transfiguration shows us of the second piece. The trials and temptations here on earth are not the full story: to be joined to God in eternity is full and true joy… that is, heaven: eternal and perfect intimacy with the Holy Trinity, to know and be known, to see God face to face. When we are in the desert, assailed by temptations, it can seem VERY far away. But heaven is the joyful goal to which we lift up our eyes. This is the final homeland to which our earthly pilgrimage is directed. Jesus not only raised our humanity above sin and temptation, but He actually draws us right into heaven, if we are willing to accept this gift.

God’s call to us began long ago! When Abram is called by God in Ur, God begins to reveal this promise. He speaks of “ a land that I will show you,” and tells Abram He will make of him a great nation that will be a blessing to all the communities of the earth.” Abram probably understood this at first as an earthly and tangible blessing, but we see already foreshadowed our heavenly home. There is a land and a place prepared for us. We have here on this earth no lasting home. Paul encourages the young bishop Timothy, “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Strength comes to us “through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

The Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor

That light shone with nearly full force upon the faces and into the hearts of Peter, James, and John. They saw those descendents of Abram, Moses and Elijah, conversing with Jesus in glory. They had glimpsed Jesus’ Godhead and power in His miracles, in the authority with which He taught, in the intimacy with which He spoke of being one with the Father. On that day, on the summit of Mount Tabor, this glory shone through clearly. Our earthen humanity, made of humble clay, had been assumed by the Son as He was conceived in the womb of Mary. Our humanity was lifted up, drawn away from sin and death, drawn into intimacy with the Father. On that day, Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse of this beauty, Peter wanted to stay there forever, and they fell prostrate in awe and fear. They heard with their own ears the voice of the Father, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The penance and discipline of Lent are meant precisely to prepare us and purify us and dispose us for the heavenly joy of Easter. We learn to say no to created things so that we can give our full and joyous yes to God. To live these days and weeks of Lent well in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is our preparation. Not only does it dispose us to receive Easter joy, but even the very joy of Heaven itself! In His victory over temptation, Jesus empowers us to reject evil in all its forms. In this revelation of His glory, Jesus gives us joy and hope, a taste of what lies ahead.  Do we live in light of this truth?  Does heaven touch our daily lives? Do we speak and act in light of the promise and hope of eternal life?  This is what the Gospel calls us to.

That elderly friar has heaven before his eyes and in his heart. Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse of heaven. God does not leave us on the sidelines either. In just moments, Jesus will be before us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This presence will be veiled, but no less real. I will hold aloft the consecrated host, and each one here will behold with their eyes and hearts the God-Man. Truly we can say with Peter, “Lord, it is good that we are here.” May this glimpse and foretaste of heaven fill us with joy and lead us to persevere on this Lenten journey, and through this life to heaven.