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Theophanes the Greek. Transfiguration (detail), 15th century. (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)
By Rev. Giles Haché
LENT is a season when the Church is invited to slow down, to listen deeply, and to allow God to reveal both what is broken in our world and what God desires to restore.
It is not merely a time of personal discipline. It is a time of unveiling and a time when the Spirit leads us, as Jesus was led into the desert (Mt 4:1‑11), to confront the forces that distort human dignity and fracture our common life. In the desert, Jesus faces three temptations that are, in truth, the great distortions of human power: the power to possess, the power to dominate, the power to manipulate God.
These temptations are not abstract. They manifest today in policies that dehumanize, in systems that crush, and in rhetoric that fuels fear. They appear in coercive immigration practices such as those associated with ICE, in political exaggerations that turn vulnerable people into threats, and in structures that separate families or criminalize poverty and insecurity.
These realities are not simply social problems. They are spiritual wounds. Lent calls us to face them with courage, clarity, and compassion and to restore justice and participating in God's Work of Healing.
Restorative justice is not a political trend or a social program. It is a theological vision rooted in the very heart of the Gospel. It reflects the way God acts in Scripture: God hears the cry of the oppressed (Ex 3:7). God brings water from the rock in places of conflict and complaint (Ex 17:1‑7). God restores the dignity of the marginalized, like the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:5‑42). God opens the eyes of those society has rendered invisible (Jn 9:1‑41). God raises what has fallen into death (Jn 11:1‑45).
Restorative justice is therefore an expression of God’s desire to heal relationships, rebuild communities, and restore the dignity of every person. It insists that no one is disposable. No one is beyond redemption. No one is outside the reach of God’s mercy. This is why policies that break families, that bring fear, or reduce human beings to legal categories, are not only unjust but they contradict the Gospel itself.
The story of the Transfiguration (Mt 17:1‑9) reminds us that discipleship begins with a transformed vision. Peter, James, and John are invited to see Jesus differently and not to escape the world, but to return to it with new eyes. In a world marked by inequity, polarization, and fear, we too need transfigured sight. We need to see: dignity where others see danger, a neighbour where others see a stranger, a possibility for healing where others see an impasse. Restorative justice begins with this conversion of vision and a willingness to see the world as Christ sees it.
The Scripture does not ask Christians to avoid politics. It asks us to discern it. Paul teaches that authority exists for the common good (Rom 13:1‑4), yet he also commands believers to “expose the works of darkness” (Eph 5:11) when power becomes oppressive. The prophets Isaiah, Amos, Micah all speak with one voice: God judges societies by how they treat the poor, the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan. This means that contemporary political distortions including coercive immigration practices, fear‑based rhetoric, and systems that exploit vulnerability, are not merely policy debates. They are theological questions. They force us to ask: Do we believe in a God of mercy?
Silence has a sacred place in Christian life. Jesus himself withdraws into silence to pray. But silence can also become a form of surrender. When the crowd tries to silence Bartimaeus, Jesus refuses. When authorities try to silence the man born blind, Jesus stands with him. When Lazarus lies in the tomb, Jesus breaks the silence with a cry of life. Christian silence is never a silence that protects injustice. It is a silence that listens, discerns, and prepares a truthful word. But when silence allows the powerful to crush the vulnerable, it becomes complicity.
Paul writes, “You are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8). In Scripture, light is not merely brightness. It is revelation, healing, and transformation. In the Gospel of John, the signs of Jesus are not displays of power. They are acts of restorative justice: restoring sight, restoring dignity, restoring community, restoring hope and restoring life. To walk as children of the light is to refuse the shadows where fear, manipulation, and abuse hide. It is to speak truth with compassion. It is to act in ways that heal rather than harm.
Paul assures us that “hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). Christian hope is not naïve optimism. It is a form of spiritual resistance. I believe that an unjust system can be transformed, that hardened hearts can be opened, wounded communities can be healed, broken people can be raised up, and death does not have the final word.
Hope is not passive. It is active, courageous, and deeply rooted in the Resurrection. Lent leads us toward Easter and toward the triumph of life over death. This journey is not only spiritual. It is profoundly concrete. It calls all of us to: discern the forces of death at work in our world, reject the logics of fear and domination, defend the dignity of every person, act with compassion and courage, and become artisans of restorative justice.
May the Spirit give us a transfigured heart, an enlightened gaze, and a word that liberates. May our Lenten journey draw us deeper into God’s work of healing and for our communities, for our world, and for every person created in the image of God.
Rev. Gilles Haché is the Rector of St. Matthew's, Windsor and Chaplain to Lay Readers in the Diocese of Huron.