The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order
that we may also be glorified with Him.
In those words from today’s second reading St. Paul refers
to the transcendent blessing won for us by Jesus Our Lord and Saviour: for, by embracing
the cruellest punishment the Roman State could inflict – death on a cross -- He
destroyed death’s power over us, and, by rising from the dead He restored our
Life.
Jesus died for love of His Father ; He suffered on the Cross for love of us.
That is, by His transformation of the human horror of dying
on the Cross into an act of supreme love for His Father and for us, He
shattered the tyrannical hold of death over our human experience of life, and now,
by His rising from the grave in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:11) He is glorified
in His human flesh, and is able to pour out His Spirit upon His Church to
free those who believe in Him from their sins and give them the hope of
sharing in the divine life of eternal beatitude which is His, with the Spirit, in
the presence of His heavenly Father.
All that is most beautiful and true … for us who believe …
but what does it mean for those many who do not believe; who think that there
is no such thing as sin for which we are responsible before some imaginary God?
It means that the HIV blood scandal affecting, ruining and
destroying thousands of peoples’ lives; it
means that the Post office scandal bringing about even the criminal
condemnation of the innocent; it means that both those scandals -- done
knowingly by people like you and me -- are parts of ordinary life, they are
bound to happen because there is no one, greater than man, who can change human
nature. It means that the gangs smuggling
people from one part of the world to another, illegally, and for great profit;
that the drug dealers, mobsters, and
wild-ones are just endless variants of our rich human endowment! And none of this can be changed … for apparently
good people did some of these terrible things … none of this can be changed
because there is no God, nor is there is any such thing as sin!
Of course there are some who foolishly think that they can distract
themselves from the evil they have done and learn to forget it; that they can come,
in that way, to have no qualms of conscience at all about the harm they
continue to do; and of them the psalmist says:
Sin lurks deep in the
hearts of the wicked, forever urging them on to evil deeds. They have no fear
of God to hold them back. Instead, in
their conceit, they think they can hide their evil deeds and not get caught. Everything they say is crooked and deceitful;
they are no longer wise and good. They
lie awake at night to hatch their evil plots instead of planning how to keep
away from wrong. (TLB Ps. 36:1-4)
However, though they may -- to some extent -- hide their
sins from themselves; and though their eyes may refuse to recognize, and their
minds to admit, the truth about themselves, nevertheless, God is the One Who
sees all and knows all, and He hates wickedness; above all, He hates the
wickedness of those who claim to be innocent of wrong-doing:
With You Lord is the
fountain of life; in Your light do we see light. Oh, continue Your steadfast love to those who
know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart. The evil doers lie fallen; they are thrust
down, unable to rise.
If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (Ps 36:9-10,12; (1 John 1:8-10)
For all who live in Jesus, by the Spirit, for the Father,
the gift of forgiveness of sins and freedom from their former enslavement –
their former yielding to fear and temptation -- brings a truly sublime
experience of peace and hope.
The next blessing Jesus offers us is inconceivable because
He promises that His faithful disciples will share in His own heavenly glory:
Now, Father, glorify Me in
Your presence, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have
given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me
because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:5,
24)
That is why St. Paul is able to speak of the “glory of the
children of God”. For the present time,
indeed, the fullness of that consuming glory is something we cannot conceive,
for it is heavenly and transcends all earthly categories or human
imagining. However, we can experience the
beginning of that heavenly glory here on earth, because it is given us – even
here and now -- to enter into communion with the Father, in the Son, by the
Holy Spirit, as you heard in today’s second reading:
All who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God. For you
did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
received the Spirit of adoption as sons (members of the Body of Christ),
by Whom we cry, "Abba, Father."
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of
God.
That means that we are able to have a share in the Son’s
loving relationship with His Father by the Holy Spirit: in Jesus, we too can
commune with the Father, speak personally with Him as His children and
experience His Fatherly love and care for us, as the Spirit of Jesus -- gently
working in our spirit and guiding us along His ways – forms us ever more and
more in Jesus’ likeness. In that way, in
Jesus and with Him, we can come to know that we are not left to ourselves and
that, whatever our weakness, whatever our need, we will never be left alone:
Behold, the hour is
coming, indeed it has now come, when you will be scattered, each to his own,
and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not
alone, for the Father is with Me. (John 16:32)
If anyone loves Me, he
will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our home with him. (John 14:23)
(Father) I made known to
them Your name, and will continue to make it known, that the love with which
You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26)
Now, that, People of God, is the supreme reason for our
whole-hearted celebration of the Most Holy Trinity today: for, thanks to Jesus,
we know by faith, and can appreciate, experience spiritually, something of the Father’s love,
the love which completely embraces and surrounds us, the love which always
guides and protects us by the power of Jesus’ Spirit working in us and with us
For all these incomparable blessings we are undyingly
grateful to Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, because it is He alone Who both
reveals the Father to us and bequeaths to us His Most Holy Spirit:
Jesus said, "I am the
way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through
Me.” (John 14:6)
The Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)
And Jesus does all this for us through His faithful Spouse,
Mother Church, which continues to do as He originally commanded her:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
