Year C: Trinity Sunday

Second Reading: Romans 5: 1-5 
 

Patience - perseverance - and hope are three virtues that Paul sees as coming from the suffering we endure in this world.

They are not, it has to be said, inevitable results of suffering.

For some people, suffering brings out selfishness - quarrelsomeness - bitterness - and so on.

Suffering is not necessarily ennobling.

Yet, here is Paul claiming that our sufferings are something we can boast about (which is not the same as moaning about them!) - and that they can lead us into deeper hope.

The answer lies in the One in whom our hope is placed - in God. Our faith in Jesus as Lord makes our peace with God. Through Jesus we have entered a state of grace - a life lived in harmony with the will of God. We carry in our hearts a sense of the enormous love which the Father has poured into us. He created us. He sent Jesus to live and die for us - and sends His Spirit to lead us in all truth.

It is this that gives a firm foundation to our hope - a hope that does not deceive us. We are not offered the “empty promise” of a life lived in ease and comfort. Such things are rare on earth - and don’t necessarily mean that we have God’s favour. We are told that while we live on earth, we share the suffering of the world - that we are not exempt from it. The difference is that we have hope in God - whose love was shown in the totally self-giving love of Jesus. This was a love that did not stand aside from suffering - but went through it. This was a love that could not die - but which is constantly being born in the love of the Father and the Son.

Patience - perseverance - and hope are not fashionable virtues - probably because they remind us that some things are beyond our control and just have to be lived through...

Perhaps it is by holding firm to these things

• to patience - showing that we are prepared to wait “actively” (that is - sure that something is unfolding even if we are not sure what) -

• to perseverance in what we have set ourselves to do

• to hope when the odds are stacked against us...

Perhaps these will be ways that will speak to our age in a way that frenetic activity cannot.

 What does it mean for me?

When have you experienced suffering as demoralising and filled with hopelessness? Where did you find the strength to pick yourself up and keep going? When have you experienced suffering that has taught you perseverance, patience and hope?

  Text © 2007 Wellspring

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