Sunday Gospel Reflection (March 16, 2025)

Grounded in Hope

Our first reading from Mass begins with Abraham thoroughly grounded, but with the hope of looking beyond himself. God calls him to look up to the stars as a sign of hope in the promise God is making to Abraham. At this point in the story, Abraham has no child in his old age. God has not held up His end of the bargain, but is asking for faithfulness and hope. 

Light as Hope

This sense of hope is reaffirmed in the Psalm for this week, which refers to God as my “light and salvation.” We value light especially when we are in the dark. We are looking ahead to it trying to make our way through the dark path. This is why the light is also one’s salvation through the uncertainty and danger of darkness, but it requires that we look ahead and stay focused. This is the nature of hope. 

Imitating Our Object of Hope

In the second reading, St. Paul gives us two ends upon which one can be focused, Christ “in heaven” (in imitating St. Paul) and “earthly things.” Again, this is a meditation of where one places one’s hope. To the degree one stays focused on Christ, one is focused on heaven and moving toward that goal. To the degree one focuses on one’s “stomach” or other worldly pleasures at the expense of Christ, one will “attain” that goal as well (to one’s destruction as those things all pass away). 

The Realization of One's Hope

Finally, just as Abraham began on the ground but looking upward, so now we have in the Gospel reading the three Apostles, Peter, James and John moving up the mountain of Transfiguration to look upon something even greater than the light of the stars. Here, the three Apostles look upon not just the face of Christ, but the face of Christ in his heavenly glory. Here, they see the object of Abraham’s hope. Here, there see the object of all of our hopes as it reflects not only the reality of Jesus himself, but all of our heavenly destinies.