TrinityC19.   Proverbs 8:22-31.  Here ’wisdom’ is personified, as if it were a divine person whom God employed, to help him create the world.  I believe that this passage was put here this Sunday as way of prefiguring Jesus’ work and presence in the Holy Trinity.

John 16:12-15.  “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now now.’”  As eighth grade material is not taught to a student who is on the fourth grade level, likewise Jesus’ disciples need to be taught by the Spirit in steps.  That is true of us too.  “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”  Jesus gives us the divine teacher, the Holy Spirit, who uses the bible, the Church, the priests and other ministers and whatever else he desires, to teach us the truth or genuine reality of all that is forever.  The Holy Spirit, along with other members of the Trinity, the One God, because of his divinity, is the only one who knows the fullness of what is the truth or reality.  The Spirit teaches not as a person separate from the oneness of God but from the wholeness that is the three Persons who is the One God.  He does not just teach us facts about God but gradually reveals God himself to us so that we may have eternal life.  Jesus prays to the Father as the disciples listen in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:1-5.   Paul had been brought to Rome as a prisoner in chains.  He says we can “even boast of our afflictions” because he himself is now afflicted with imprisonment.  The Spirit helps to develop our holiness through our afflictions as faith grows because we can no longer remain in Christ on our own but only with the strength of the Spirit.  Faith gives us access to the grace we need to remain firm in Christ because it roots us in Christ.  We are a people of hope because we know from past experiences that the love of our God for us never lets us down.  “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”