For All Times

And behold, I am with you always, until the consummation of the world.

-Matthew 28:20

This short line from St. Matthew's Gospel is stunning in its challenge to our belief. All that we do, all that we seek, all that is expected of us, is predicated on this guarantee. Christ Himself tells us right as he is leaving us that He will still be with us. The Apostles see Him go, yet see, eventually, anyway, that He has not even left.

What the Lord is telling us is that our work will not be in vain so long as we keep the faith, because it will be Him working through us. Not having barged into our souls, mind you, but having been there because we have let Him in. All that is required of us is that we believe He is present to us, at all times and in all places.

It is important that we hear the words of St. Matthew today, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, for Christ being in us means God is in us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It isn't as though we are promised aid by one, but by all the Persons in the Godhead. Who can know defeat with such help at hand? Perhaps more critically, who cannot know true and deep joy when all the Power of God walks with us?

Deus nobiscum, quis contra? If God is with us, who can be against us? Defeat can only be temporary or merely temporal when God is in us. By His Grace, he is with us always.