Third Sunday after Pentecost; The Holy Prophet Elisha; Our Father Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople
Apostle’s Fast.
Romans 5:1-10; Matthew 6:22-33.
Read Romans 5:1-10
It is more difficult to become like someone than to simply admire them. We sometimes experience this when we come up against resistance within ourselves to having to change. Family and friends can reveal to us that we have some hard work to do to in our relationships with them. The relationships we have are gifts to be enjoyed; becoming what our relationships require of us is work, but no less a grace.
What could be better than “rejoic(ing) in our hope of sharing the glory of God?” Paul says, “more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings.” That is a hard sell, but Paul shows it to be essential . Suffering changes us. Hope can fade; it must be renewed throughout our journey. Suffering can produce endurance, which can produce character, which can produce hope, but how? It could also produce resignation, weakness, and despair. Paul says he “know(s)” it will if we begin in God’s love and continue through the Holy Spirit within us. The difference that kind of hope makes is the difference between wanting to enjoy God’s glory externally and wanting to become like God internally. If we are going to go the distance, the changes suffering will require of us are those that make us more like God.
That is why Paul emphasizes that God’s love for us began when we were not integrally like him, that we can now even much more trust that his love will be there for us. To become like God requires us to trust him and risk living through to the other end of our sufferings in the manner in which he showed his love for us, “that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”