24th Sunday After Pentecost- Christ is Our Peace in the Communion of the Trinity

The Church continually proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good tidings that He brought to mankind, namely, that through sharing the Life of God by means of the His Mysteries, human beings can be freed from death and become partakers in the everlasting Kingdom of God.  In short, because the Holy One has become a human being, the poisons of this world can be stopped.

     God is calling us to communion with Him. He is calling us to share His life, to live the same life with Him.  This is the invitation that the Church is constantly talking about, constantly promoting and proclaiming.  This invitation is beautifully pictured in the icon of the Holy Trinity.  In this symbolic representation of the Holy Trinity, we see the Three Divine Persons seated around the Holy Table: the Father sits to the right side of the Holy Table, while the Spirit sits across from Him on the Table’s left side. The Word, Christ our God, sits in the center, behind the Holy Table. In the attitude and posture of the Three Persons there is a sense of tranquility, harmony and peace.  Perhaps the most moving detail of the icon is the fact that the front of the Holy Table is open. The communion of the Trinity is open towards us. We are being invited to take our place at the same Table. But, what the Church does not say often enough is that we cannot even accept this invitation to share the life of God without first accomplishing something else.  In order to accept the invitation to share in the deification that is offered to us in Christ, we first have to change our entire orientation towards being. We have to learn to look at being, the universe, creation, in a different way. Only then will it be possible for us to be transformed in Christ and through Christ into the fullness of the image and likeness of God.

     We human beings, because of our sinful nature, are continually at odds with being.  We are continually dissatisfied with what is, and ever wanting to replace what is with what, we think, should be.  This is one of the most effective poisons of the world—a death-dealing drug to the human spirit.  Just look around at the impatience, frustration and anxiety all around us in the world. Take a good look at the anger, greed and hatred that surround us, on account of desires unfulfilled, goals unaccomplished, and needs unmet. Yet, God has revealed Himself by means of two Scriptures, both of which are worthy of our respect and reverence.  The first of these Scriptures in the order of time is being itself.  God reveals His Will to us first and foremost by means of what is.  Behold the stark simplicity of what we human beings try to make a complex world.  What exists has been willed by God, what does not exist, He has not willed. Everything that happens to us is either positively willed by God, or it is permitted by Him.  He always has the same motive for all of His actions: our individual good, because the individual human being is the image of God, and God is capable of loving the individual human being as if he or she were the only created thing.

     The human being, then, who wants to see salvation, that is, who wants to love God, and take his or her place at the Table in the communion of the Trinity, needs to begin by accepting being as the manifestation of God’s Will.  When we accept the world around us as it is, we are free to ponder the significance of things and events.  This humble pondering of God’s Will for us leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s plan, knowing all the while that we are not capable of understanding that plan in its fullness and majesty.  Learning to accept our circumstances as a manifestation of God’s Will for us is nothing less than embracing Christ as our peace.  The Holy Apostle says in today’s epistle: “Christ is our peace.” What this means is: we don’t have to suffer anxiety or impatience, or frustration, because we have Christ.

     Ask yourselves this question: If what occurs in my life is not a manifestation of God’s Will, then what is? And, who is this person, who is greater than God, making things happen against God’s Will?

     Once we have accepted Christ as our peace, then we are able to accept God’s invitation to share His Life.  Once we no longer rebel against being, but humbly accept it, then we become docile to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and He is able to teach us through our experiences, the Scriptures and the rites of the Church.