Reflection on Mass readings for June 15 (Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity)
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
It is one of the great human desires to live in peace. In our world, peace seems so fleeting. Peace might seem like something in short supply as we look at the events of our own lives. Or, peace might seem ephemeral because of a new war or violent outrage against human life. Moments of peace can seem only a brief respite from constant struggling that seems to belong to our human condition. Because of this, we might be tempted to become cynical about this world and God’s ability to give us peace.
Yet, on Trinity Sunday, peace is exactly what is promised to those who live within the mystery of Trinitarian life. In the second reading, St. Paul assures us in the Letter to the Romans that “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).
This experience of peace is the work of the Trinity. We see in Paul’s letter the work of each of the persons of the Blessed Trinity in our salvation: 1) We have peace with the Father; 2) We have this peace through the works of Christ; and 3) The love of God the Father is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus gave us access to sharing in the very inner life of the Trinity. Because of this, Paul can assure us of peace. We have been given into the hands of the Father, and no one can take us from his hands.
But at the very same time, Paul warns us that to share in the hope of the glory of God entails afflictions and endurance. So, which is it, peace or afflictions?
God’s peace does mean that our struggles are at an end. To be at peace with God is to know and experience how our life is ordered toward God. When we stop struggling against our very nature, God allows us to experience what real peace is. But even in that experience of peace, the struggle will continue. We are then called to strive to work against sin in the world and in us, to struggle against the power that would try and snatch that peace from us.
In God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – we have found peace, but the devil ever seeks to disturb our peace by having us lose heart. This is why St. Paul encourages us in the midst of affliction to endurance and hope.
The devil really does not have the power to disturb our peace, because the gift of that peace is not something that we obtain for ourselves. It is a gift given to us by God, pouring his love into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can be sustained in the peace of God because God himself assures us that he is the source of that peace.
Msgr. Timothy Keeney is pastor of Church of the Incarnation, Charlottesville, and Our Lady of the Rosary, Crozet.