If last weekend's readings left us in no doubt about our present fallen human state, this Sunday's readings are equally insistent about the rewards of faith. Abram is to be richly blessed because of his faithful obedience. Paul reminds us that we are called to be holy through the power of God at work in our lives. And the gospel shows us our destiny as children of the Father. We too will be glorified and transformed by the presence of the risen Christ in our lives.

But we have also to realise that this glory does not mean that we will not suffer. After the Transfiguration Jesus and the disciples have to come down to the awful reality of the crucifixion. Despite the vision, Peter and the other disciples desert Jesus in his suffering. So too with us on occasions we feel we grasp the mystery of faith in a profound way in our worship, only to find that we come back to earth with a bump. Our intimacy with Jesus does not stop us suffering, and we cannot spend our lives on the mountain top. Like Abram, 'our father in faith', we have to journey on, but we can be confident in the power of the Lord who leads us. Each Lent we trace the path of Christian discipleship to the Cross and to the Resurrection.

P.D.