WHO HATH KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD?

 A SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

What can we possibly say about the Most Blessed Trinity?  The Trinity is God, and God is everything, so you might think there’s an awful lot we can talk about.  And certainly that’s true.  But yet, you’ll notice that today’s Epistle and Gospel are both very short.  In fact, today’s readings are the shortest of the year.  And why is that?  Is it because of the lack of things to say about the Blessed Trinity.  Not at all.  The theological treatises on the Trinity started appearing in the very earliest days of the Church and have continued ever since.  We know a whole lot about each of the three Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and a great deal too about them as one divine Being whom we call God.  And yet, even after two thousand years of study by the greatest minds of the Church, there’s still so much we don’t understand.

The reason is simple.  God is infinite and we are not.  Our minds cannot grasp the concept of a being that has always existed and always will, because our minds are limited.  Limited by our own experience of time and space, limited by our own finite nature.  We can only truly comprehend what falls within the limits of this nature, and so infinity, eternity, divine perfection are simply beyond us.  And that’s okay.  There are things we’re not meant to comprehend, and we call these truths “mysteries.”  Three Persons in one infinite and eternal God is one of those mysteries, and so we don’t need to attempt the impossible by trying to understand it.

St. Patrick gave it a good shot when he tried explaining the Trinity to the ancient pagan tribes of Ireland.  He held up before them a humble little shamrock.  Three leaves and yet one shamrock.  Three Persons, one God.  This simple device helped convert the pagans and thus served St. Patrick’s purpose.  And yet, neither they nor even St. Patrick himself could even begin to imagine the reality of the Trinity which the shamrock so dimly represents.  Today, with all out technology, our computers, our artificial intelligence, our smartphones, we’re no nearer understanding the mystery of the Trinity than when St. Patrick held up those little green leaves to the Irish people.

So what is there in today’s readings that the Church wanted to show us?  If we can’t possibly understand the concept of an infinite Triune God, what is there in today’s Epistle and Gospel that the Church wants us to know about the Trinity above all else?  She chooses first of all to confirm to us through the words of St. Paul that the Trinity is indeed a mystery beyond our comprehension.  “O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”  There are truths out there, he’s saying, truths that are great riches, and which are very deep—“O the depth of the riches”—so deep that we can never approach them: “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”  No one can ever know these depths, says St. Paul, as he asks the rhetorical question, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord?” 

We might know and understand very little about the Trinity, but oh, what unknown riches there are beyond our comprehension. St. Paul’s words are the best we can come up with to describe the nature of a God who is infinite and eternal, because no words are adequate.  This knowledge that that there are these riches so far above our comprehension inspire us to act accordingly.  And again, St. Paul sums up our response in the last words of this epistle today: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.  Amen.”  Everything we do actually understand, everything we know by our five senses and our reason, all of it was made by God, continues to exist through the divine will of God, and belongs to God.  “Of him, through him, to him.”  So what is our response?  We must adore this God, “to whom be glory for ever.”  If we know this much, we know enough.

In today’s Gospel, our blessed Lord himself confirms the words of St. Paul.  By the very fact of his existence as Man, our Lord offers us a greater knowledge and understanding of the Trinity.  For who is he, this Man whom we yet revere as God?  He is a man and therefore one of us.  A man that we can understand, because a man is not infinite.  He is born on a specific date, he dies on a specific date, he has a body that we can see and touch, he speaks with words that we can hear.  He probably resembled his blessed Mother, and certainly had her genetic composition, her DNA, her blood flowing through his veins.  He ate and drank like us, breathed air like us, was tempted like us.  We can relate to our Lord because he is like us in all things except sin.  God in his mercy begat his Son with a human nature so that we could better understand the nature of the divine.  And yet, our Lord tell us in this very short Gospel today, he may be a man, but he is at the same time more than just a man: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”  He was a man but he was also God.  He always was God and always will be God.  So go, baptize not just in the Name of God, but in the name of the Blessed Trinity, the three names of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

And what does this Second Person of the Blessed Trinity tell us we must do if we believe in God?  Obey the law.  “Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”  For if ye love me, our Lord says elsewhere, ye will keep my commandments.  If we follow God’s will, all will be well.  And what is God’s will?  What is his greatest commandment?  Thou shalt love God!  “Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, mind and soul, and thy neighbor as thyself.”  If we do this, everything else will fall into place.  Because when we love God above all things, God will be dwelling in our hearts and minds and souls.  “Lo,” says our Lord, “I am with you, always, even unto the end of the world.”