Third Sunday after Pentecost. Octoechos Tone 2. Our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria (444).
Apostles’ Fast.
Romans 5:1-10. Matthew 6:22-33.
Read Romans 5:1-10
The memories of the beginning of a relationship bring us back to how the relationship began, why we entered into it, and what it was about the other person that drew us toward them. Returning to these questions is important for the relationship to grow.
In today’s epistle reading, we are reminded of how our relationship with God began and what it will fulfill – our relationship with God has a past, a present, and a future.
In the past, our relationship with God began with Him loving us first. Not only that, but He loved us when we were diametrically opposed to Him. Not only that, God didn’t just love us from a distance and leave us there, but He did something to change that – “in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
In the present, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” and “we have access by faith into (His) grace.”
In the future, our hope will be fulfilled if it is set upon God’s glory. That is something we can even take comfort in rejoicing in now, without any reservation that it will be disappointing, because God has given us the inner capacity to love Him back.
If we let the past of our relationship with God be the guide to the present, then the hope of the future will affect our present too. By letting the truth of “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” sink in, we can be encouraged to not lose heart in the tribulations of life, knowing that “much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”