OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 mar 2026

01/03/2026 - 2nd SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

01/03/2026 - 2nd SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

1st reading Gn 12:1-4a from Psalm 32 2nd reading 2 Tim 1:8b-10 Gospel Mt 17:1-9

During Lent, the call to conversion continues to resound. What does this mean? We can respond in many ways, but let us allow ourselves to be instructed by today's readings. Abraham receives a command from God: “Leave your country, your family and your father's house”. And he receives a promise of blessing for himself and his descendants. But where should he go? Here is the answer: “To the land that I will show you”. What will Abraham do? If he did not leave, he would follow the reasoning of his own mind, similar to that of all men, who do only what they understand and whose consequences they can foresee. But Abraham leaves, with a great act of faith: he believes in the promises, first of all in that of receiving the necessary directions at the right time, and then in that of the blessing he will receive for all the families of the earth! Abraham has faith, that is, he lives it by beginning a journey with his eyes closed. He knows that his God's eyes are open, and so he walks briskly.

Here is one aspect of our conversion: not living and acting according to the reasoning of our own minds, but walking according to the directions we receive from God. We will always try to reason starting from the words that resound from Above. We will live, we can say, the same faith as Abraham.

This is the clear indication that the three disciples who climbed the high mountain with Jesus receive. Before receiving the indication, they are made spectators of something unusual, which will help them to trust the word they will hear. They see their Master differently, shining with a light that cannot be earthly. They see him in the company of the most important figures in the history of their people. All their religious convictions are based on the word of Moses and the testimony of Elijah: here they are, framing the vision of Jesus. The three would like to prolong the beauty of what they are witnessing, but they have seen this spectacle only so that they may be ready for what is to follow.

A word comes from the shadow of the “luminous cloud” that envelops and obscures them: “This is my Son, the beloved; in him I am well pleased. Listen to him”. Now they know that their Master is not alone and is no longer a teacher: he becomes their Lord, their God, bringing into the world the love of which God himself is made. God becomes Father in their eyes. And God the Father gives the Son all authority to speak and act with confidence in his name.

Now we understand what our conversion consists of: we will not listen to our reason, not even that of the intelligent men of the world, but instead we will listen to the voice of Jesus, who is now alone before the three. And before them, he no longer shines as before: he is like every man, speaking with a human voice and words, and capable of suffering like all men; he himself had announced this to them a few days earlier.

“Listen to him”: the Word on which we will base our lives will be his Word. Only his. And this, in obedience to the one who had also spoken to Abraham.

Our listening to the Word of Jesus will be resolute, like that of Abraham. Do we not see where his Word leads us? We trust him, his eyes, which see everything without suffering the limitations that our eyes possess. We will live the faith of Abraham by listening to Jesus. This is conversion.

We too will be blessed, and we will become a blessing for ‘all the families of the earth’. Will we suffer? Certainly, as Abraham suffered when he left without knowing. When we suffer in order to obey Jesus, we will fulfil our vocation to holiness. This is what St Paul asserts in his letter to Timothy.

He expressly invites him to suffer: he will receive the strength to do so from God himself. It is not just suffering, but suffering for the Gospel, that is, to obey Jesus: and this is not suffering, but becoming partakers of God's glory. Jesus, in fact, ‘has conquered death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.’ These words encapsulate the blessing promised to Abraham. This blessing rests upon us, and we bring it to every person who is still awaiting their conversion.