Our Goal is Heaven
Second Sunday of Lent (C)
You have reached the goal of your pilgrimage here at the beautiful and historic church of St John’s, Richmond. Yesterday when you set out from St Patrick’s at Colebrook you had a journey ahead of you.
There were hills to climb, and over twenty kilometres to cover in the day. There were enjoyable times of peaceful walking through the beautiful countryside. There were probably moments when you were tested. You were running low on energy. Maybe your feet began to hurt, or your shoulders. The weather conditions changed. It became a little more challenging.
However, as you walked you were not alone. You were in company with your fellow pilgrims. They gave you encouragement and you pressed on. Last night you had a time of physical and spiritual refreshment. You began today with fresh hope and intention. And here you are.
These two days of pilgrimage are a paradigm or archetype of human life. Each of our lives is a journey. The span of years, in terms of human history, is quite brief.
The psalmist in the Old Testament said, “Our lifetime is seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years” (Ps 90:10). He then added, “They pass quickly, and then we are gone”. Life is short, and as a friend of mine used to say, “we get one shot at life”.
What has been important about this pilgrimage is that it has a direction and a goal. You have not spent two days in aimless wandering. You have had a clear destination, and this has motivated and directed your efforts. Now you enjoy the satisfaction of having completed the pilgrimage and reached its goal.
Each second Sunday of Lent the Church gives us the account of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It may seem an unusual choice of readings. One would have thought that the readings for the Lenten season would be on one of the themes of Lent, like fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Or readings on conversion or repentance which are central to the spirit of this holy season.
Instead, we have the account of an extraordinary experience for Peter, James and John when in their presence on the mountain they beheld the Lord being transfigured. The Gospel accounts describe it quite graphically. St Luke tells us that the “aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliantly as lightening”. It was a dramatic experience.
We know that Lent is a call to acts of self-denial. We all know that we need to do something. It is like the need for us to exercise better discipline over what we eat or the exercise we should be undertaking. We know that these disciplines are good for us and necessary for our general wellbeing.
However, acts of self-denial are not ends in themselves. We are not undertaking them because they are good for us. They are part of the process by which we are being transformed.
The Transfiguration of Jesus is a foretaste not only of his own Resurrection but it is also a declaration of the final outcome of the Christian life, our own transfiguration.
In the second reading captures this very clearly. St Paul says,
For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body.
We can notice a couple of things about this:
- St Paul uses the word, ‘transfigure’. A reference to the Transfiguration. We can now contemplate what happened to Jesus as an expression of what will happen to us. Amazing!
- St Paul speaks of our “homeland’ as being heaven. We are on a journey in this world. This world, however, is not our final destiny or the sum of our existence. Something greater awaits us.
Contemplating the Transfiguration encourages us on our journey through life, just we all looked towards the completion of the pilgrimage. We Christians always have heaven before us as our goal.
On that journey we not only have our goal clearly set before us, but we also do not walk alone. We are part of the Church, the pilgrim people of God. We have the saints who have gone before us. We have our brothers and sisters in the faith walking beside us.
During Lent we embrace the acts of self-denial that we undertake with their greater purpose in mind. They are not ends in themselves, but they are strengthening us to undertake the pilgrimage of life, helping us on our journey to our goal, heaven.
Today, as we end this short pilgrimage from St Patrick’s Colebrook to St John’s Richmond, let us contemplate the Transfiguration of the Lord as an incentive and inspiration to embrace our journey of faith with renewed vigour and purpose.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Sunday, 16 March 2025