Awakening Vocations
Heaven is now
By Mary Sharon Moore
Lectionary reflections for the Sundays of Lent: Year B
In the first Sunday of Lent we hear Jesus’ opening words in the Gospel of Mark: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe.” Jesus’ mission is not about him, it’s about the reign of God, and it’s about our need to turn around and embrace the reality of God’s reign.
As we enter into Lent, let’s stretch forward, all the way to Pentecost. The refrain of the responsorial psalm for Pentecost says: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” This Pentecost message, “Renew the face of the earth,” fulfills Jesus’ cry: “The reign of God is at hand.” The road to that renewal, and to recognizing the reign of God here and now, winds through Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.
The second readings from the Lenten Sunday lectionary in Year B insist that Jesus would do anything for us, anything, to win our hearts, turn us around, and draw us into divine life. The first letter of Peter states that Jesus “suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous.” Jesus had no earthly reason to do this, but only a passion for his Father’s willing. Jesus’ obedience to this “unreasonable” vocation spells out the unsettling truth: Our God suffers, for love of us.
God who is all love has only suasive power, not coercive power. God will never force you to go to heaven, nor force you to choose what is good, true, noble, or generous. God’s refusal to coerce reveals a shocking divine poverty. In Romans 8, St. Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, ... how will he not also give us everything along with him?” God is besotted with love, foolish in pursuit of your heart.
In First Corinthians, St. Paul writes: “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block.” God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Your vocational challenge in Lent is to take this Divine Fool’s love seriously.
St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “God, who is rich in mercy ... even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” Fool, fool, fool, hopelessly besotted by love. Precisely when we were most stinky with death and the rot of our bad choices, God redeemed us from ourselves and drew us up into the embrace of divine love.
All of this redemption and renewal did not come about because God said “Shazam!” and poof, things were made new. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus prayed in blood, sweat, and tears “to the one who was able to save him from death. . . . Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”
No, God will never force you to go to heaven nor to choose the good. Yet God has planted in your soul an innate desire for heaven, for eternal dwelling in God—your ultimate vocation.
Jesus, in his temptations toward an easier way, in his agonies, in his scourging and crucifixion, never broke away from communion with his Father. He lived what we strive to understand: Heaven is now, in that abiding communion with the Father, in the Holy Spirit.
We return to Jesus’ opening words: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe,” and to the refrain of the responsorial psalm of Pentecost: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” The reign of God is a renewed earth. This earth. The one that upholds and feeds and sustains your life and all of life. Heaven is the goal, yes, and heaven is your communion now with God in the mist of your temptations, your agonies, your humiliations, and your losses.
Mary Sharon Moore, author of Touching the Reign of God: Bringing theological reflection to daily life, is a spiritual and vocational director and founding director of Awakening Vocations. Mary Sharon may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; on the web at www.awakeningvocations.com.
