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From: Romans 5:1-5

Reconciliation Through Christ’s Sacrifice, the Basis of our Hope

[1] Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through Him we have obtained access
to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing
the glory of God. [3] More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not
disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

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Commentary:

1-5. In this very moving passage God helps us see “the divine
interlacing of the three theological virtues which form the backing
upon which the true life of every Christian man or woman has to be
woven” ([Blessed] J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 205). Faith, hope and
charity act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace.
Thus, faith leads us to know and be sure of things we hope for (cf.
Hebrews 11:1); hope ensures that we shall attain them, and enlivens our
love of God; charity, for its part, gives us energy to practise the
other two theological virtues. The definitive outcome of this growth
in love, faith and hope is the everlasting peace that is of the essence
of eternal life.

As long as we are in this present life we do have peace to some
degree—but with tribulation. Therefore, the peace attainable in this
life does not consist in the contentment of someone who wants to have
no problems, but rather in the resoluteness full of hope (”character”)
of someone who manages to rise above suffering and stays faithful
through endurance. Suffering is necessary for us, because it is the
normal way to grow in virtue (cf. James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:5-7); that is
why it is providential (cf. Philippians 1:19; Colossians 1:24) and
leads to joy and happiness (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

“A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it is
ready to endure all kinds of difficulty and distress. Thus, for
example, a sick person if he is eager to be healthy, is happy to take
the bitter medicine which will cure him. Therefore, one sign of the
ardent hope that is ours thanks to Christ is that we glory not only in
the hope of future glory, but also in the afflictions which we suffer
in order to attain it” (St. Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Romans, ad.
loc.”).

A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering
is not something meaningless but rather is designed by God for our
perfecting. Perfection consists “in the bringing of our wills so
closely into conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we
realize He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might,
and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty’s
will [...]. If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us
to forget our own pleasure in order to please Him whom we love. And
that is indeed what happens” (St. Teresa of Avila, “Book of
Foundations”, Chapter 5).

5. The love which St. Paul speaks of here is, at one and the same time,
God’s love for us—manifested in His sending the Holy Spirit—and the
love which God places in our soul to enable us to love Him. The Second
Council of Orange, quoting St. Augustine, explains this as follows: “To
love God is entirely a gift of God. He, without being loved, loves us
and enabled us to love Him. We were loved when we were still
displeasing to Him, so that we might be given something whereby we
might please Him. So it is that the Spirit of the Father and the Son,
whom we love with the Father and the son, pours charity into our
hearts” (Second Council of Orange, “De Gratia”, Canon 25; cf. St.
Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 102, 5).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: John 16:12-15

The Action of the Holy Spirit (Continuation)

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [12] “I have yet many things to say to
you, but you cannot bear them now. [13] When the Spirit of truth
comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak of
His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will
declare to you the things that are to come. [14] He will glorify Me,
for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. [15] All that the
Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and
declare it to you.”

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Commentary:

13. It is the Holy Spirit who makes fully understood the truth revealed
by Christ. As Vatican II teaches, our Lord “completed and perfected
Revelation and confirmed it...finally by sending the Spirit of truth”
(Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 4). Cf. note on John 14:25-26.

14-15. Jesus Christ here reveals some aspects of the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity. He teaches that the Three Divine Persons have the
same nature when He says that everything that the Father has belongs to
the Son, and everything the Son has belongs to the Father (cf. John
17:10) and that the Spirit also has what is common to the Father and
the Son, that is, the divine essence. The activity specific to the
Holy Spirit is that of glorifying Christ, reminding and clarifying for
the disciples everything the Master taught them (John 16:13). On being
inspired by the Holy Spirit to recognize the Father through the Son,
men render glory to Christ; and glorifying Christ is the same as giving
glory to God (cf. John 17:1, 3-5, 10).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.