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Bishop's Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

March 1, 2026

(antoniodiaz / Shutterstock.com)

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[Community of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace (in Kamiano Center)]

A couple of years ago, I was on the Big Island and driving from Kona to Waimea to meet one of our priests there for lunch. I set the GPS on my rental car for the destination, and, to be sure, I set it on my phone as well. At one juncture, the phone was telling me to go one way and the car’s system was telling me to go in the opposite direction. Luckily, I knew my way around enough to know that the car’s system was simply wrong, and if I had followed it, I would end up hours away from my destination.

Knowing where you are going is important. Or is it? We are introduced to Abram in the first reading today, and he was told by God to leave his homeland and to simply follow God. But God did not tell him where he was going, simply to go wherever he directed. And Abram had such a beautiful relationship with God that he obeyed him without having to ask too many questions. His journey took him on many twists and turns, but ultimately, he would end up in the land that the numerous descendants he was promised would be given as their own land many centuries later. Here it was not so much knowing the destination that was important, but putting trust in the God who was leading him.

The disciples of Jesus also had many twists and turns to negotiate as they followed him. They thought they were going in one direction to glory and honor, but they found their Master – and themselves – being criticized, rejected and persecuted. They were told that Jesus was on his way to death, and death of the most shameful and painful sort, death on a cross. That was not the direction they wanted to go. They were resistant, but because they had a great love for Jesus, they followed him. Today we see Jesus taking three of them and giving them a special vision of his final destination beyond the cross, in which he would be the light of the world, shining brilliantly before others and bringing together the law and the prophets, symbolized by Moses and Elijah. Peter, being overwhelmed with this glorious heavenly vision, wanted to build three tents to make the moment last, but then the glorious vision disappeared. It was back to normal. It was down from the mountaintop to the struggles in the valley below.

We are all on a journey. For the young, they are discerning a career path or a vocation of commitment to a spouse or to the Church. For others, they are discerning a path to how best provide for their families. Some are on a journey to become free of addictions of various kinds, while others are on a journey to find the love and acceptance that seems to escape them so often. Others are on a journey to find a way to forgive those who have hurt them or to be forgiven by those whom they have hurt. Still others are on a journey to discern how best to use the gifts God has given them to serve others.

We all need a guide for the journey, lest we come to a juncture and choose the wrong way to go. If anything is the project of Lent, it is to deepen our relationship with the risen Lord and to submit ourselves more and more to his guidance. It is to know him as a light who will never lead us astray – though he may lead us where we would rather not go. As we go through the darkness of life, he is the light at the end of the tunnel.  Just as the memory of this glorious vision of the Transfiguration was a source of strength for Peter, James and John in the most difficult and darkest parts of their journey, they could strengthen others with the conviction that, if we are faithful to the voice of the Lord, we will reach the final destination that will bring us more fulfillment and joy than we could possibly imagine. Then we will have not just tents to preserve the moment, but an everlasting home where Jesus himself is the sun, the moon and the stars to illumine our lives.

The challenge is to trust in Jesus, because, as God did to Abram, and to the Chosen People who descended from Abraham, and to Jesus himself, the journey may take us in directions that seem to be completely opposite to the destination. And, of course, as we saw in last Sunday’s readings of the temptations, there is one who would love to lead us astray, often by appearing to be an angel of light. Our prayer, our fasting, our almsgiving and all we do during this Lent should help us focus more clearly on the death and resurrection of Jesus – a story that is so dark that it made the sun itself refuse to shine in the full afternoon, yet so light that it ultimately brought dazzling light to all the world. When we remember the destination, our heavenly homeland, where Jesus will be speaking with Moses, Elijah and all the saints, we will not be afraid of the dark tunnels that are a part of the journey, but will press forward with our eyes fixed on the true Light of the World.