Roller Coaster: Homily for Sunday, March 1, 2026

People love a roller coaster or they hate it. But these readings for Lent remind us that the the spiritual life can be a roller coaster too. Temptation to Transfiguration. To dying on the cross to being raised from the dead. Today’s readings remind us of the great promises of God if we simply persevere. Readings for Today.

Roller Coaster

Whether you are a fan of roller coasters, or cannot think of much that you would rather not ride, the experience of riding a roller coaster generates many different feelings. There is the purposeful and long, out and drawn out journey to the top. Because for almost all roller coasters, the start is from the highest point of the roller coaster, because for most of the roller coaster, it uses no power, except the power of gravity. The anticipation of what waits at the top, coming closer not quickly, but deliberately slow, fills one with either excitement or dread.

This image of a roller coaster can be an apt one for the spiritual life. Last week, we were reminded of the lowest part of our spiritual life, significant temptations when we are at our weakest. This week, we are witnessing an experience of glory that leads St. Peter to want to remain in this glorious experience forever. Yet as wonderful as the transfiguration was, it too filled the disciples with both happiness and fear. In fact, all of the readings in some way point to the ups and downs of the spiritual life.

There is the great promise made to Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Yet while the promise is great, so too is the road ahead for Abraham. He and his wife Sarah will struggle to conceive. Abraham tries many methods before Isaac is born. Despite the certainty of the promise of God, there are many moments of struggle, ups and downs like a roller coaster.

St. Paul articulates the beauty of the promise of God that awaits us. “He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works, but according to his own design, and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

We know that the pathway to holiness is not an easy one either, maybe because the spiritual life requires so much humility. For ultimately to become holy means believing in our hearts and developing an attitude that enables us to trust in God wherever God may lead.

We live in a society, especially in the United States, where we get rewarded when we are people of rugged individualism. Some people who get ahead can be tempted to do so at all costs. Those who get ahead can be those people who do everything they can to be recognized for apparent success. But we do know that despite the saying, “Money does not buy happiness,” we seek and strive for what is fleeting. But we do know that despite the saying, “If we are successful, it only happens because we show consideration for others. Otherwise, our faith rings hollow.”

We continue the lessons of Lent by recognizing that God has great things in store for each one of us. A great promise, so great, St. Paul tells us that the promise of God is so great it is not even dawned upon us what God has prepared for those who love him.

But our lives are rarely straight lines from point A to point B. We have times where all seems to be good. Everything seems to be going so well, we cannot imagine anything better. Yet there are other times when we cannot imagine that things could get any worse. So how is it we survive all of these ups and downs and all of the times in between?

The excitement of a roller coaster is made by ups and downs. The purpose of a roller coaster would not be achieved if the roller coaster were flat. This is the challenge of the spiritual life. We started last week by confronting ourselves to determine where it is that we do not allow God into our lives. To seek the Lord’s grace by trusting in his promise and by following him wherever he leads us.

So much of the spiritual life is about memory. Remembering the way God helps us through hard times. Remembering the way where we, like the apostles, have our own transfiguration experience. But without the trust the apostles had in Jesus, they might never have experienced the transfiguration. At some point, Peter, James, and John had to have come to the realization that Jesus was trustworthy to deliver on his promises.

The question of Lent is whether we can be like the apostles. Can we trust Jesus to accompany us through the ups and downs? Can we allow the promises of God to change us? Can we be inspired enough by Jesus to feed the poor, visit the vulnerable? Can we see all that we do, how we act, how we choose, what we believe, through the lens of our relationship with Jesus?

The season of Lent is about conversion. Jesus knows what we can be if we trust the promise. Jesus pours out into our hearts and souls the grace that helps us to both believe in the promises of Jesus and to achieve them. There was a Dominican friar that I lived with as he dealt with having a terminal illness. He had cancer and the prognosis was not good. He had only a few months to live. His cancer was not operable. And he was glad. Glad?

I couldn’t believe it. He said he was glad that it was not operable. I happened to be visiting him in his room when the doctor told him all about the bad prognosis. He was glad his cancer was not operable because his sister had had a similar cancer, which was operable. And as he watched her deal with her cancer, the operation only prolonged her suffering.

But it was what he said next that has stayed with me vividly. “Besides, I trust the promises.” He realized that he had lived his entire Dominican life preaching the promises of Jesus. His whole life, which was deep and varied, was all about the promises. And he could not have preached these promises convincingly without believing the promises. And he did. He did believe the promises.

And so as we read about the promise God made and fulfilled to Abraham, we learn that God’s promises are trustworthy. St. Paul reminds us that the promise is not for a day, but forever. Jesus brings his most intimate apostles to accompany him on the occasion of the divine encounter we heard in today’s Gospel. So the season of Lent is really about promises. Do you believe the promises?

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