Sermon Preached on Trinity Sunday
Preaching in the Russian Church; Lectures and Sermons by a Priest of the Holy Orthodox Church: Chapter XVI
“There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.” (1 John, v. 7.)
The Orthodox Faith is this, that we worship One God in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons1, nor dividing the substance2. What will it profit us when we study deeply concerning the Trinity, if we be found lacking in humility and thereby are displeasing to the Most Holy Trinity? It is not for us to search into the incomprehensible mystery of Divinity. If we would approach anywhere within a reasonable approach to the Divine Mind, we, who are of the lower ones, should always endeavor to be pleasing companions to those who are of the higher ones, so that we may fervently glorify the thrice illumined Deity together with the angels, singing with that faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabbaoth, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
“Some may say,” as St. Cyril of Jerusalem has long ago rightly surmised, “if the nature or substance of God is infinite, then to what purpose do we speak of it? But shall I abstain from taking water out of the river for my use, though a small measure, because I cannot drink up the whole river? Is it because my eyes cannot contain the whole of the sun himself, I should not, as much as is necessary, make use of the daylight? And if I were to enter some large garden, the fruits of which I could not eat up, would you, for this reason, have me leave the garden altogether hungry?” Indeed we need the water, we need the sunlight, and the fruits of good endeavor and religious labor we enjoy. Therefore we should, and it is our bounden duty to learn of that knowledge, which the Creator has been pleased to reveal of Himself to His Church, without giving ourselves to vain speculations, and probing into mysteries not necessary for our temporal welfare, much less so for our eternal salvation; and while not attainable to our limited mind, sometimes because of the presence of sinful pride, sometimes on account of deceit and feeble support in false systems and individual schemes, but chiefly because a drop does not contain the ocean, a particle of creation cannot embrace the earth, the worlds, and that wisdom and power which ordered the universe and established the laws by which it is preserved.
To learn of the Supreme Being and concerning the Holy Trinity in the God-head, we need not go far; the philosopher cannot make clearer the light itself; we need not question the astronomer; and surely the majority of mankind only become puzzled when they singly weigh the corroborations of the geologist. Just look around and you will see on the space of a few yards of earth a great quantity of heterogeneous beings and natures, existing in the same air and by the same material food in substance as we do; yet some are adapted to life in the air, some move only in the water, and others are subjected to several certain limited forms of existence upon the land, while man, by his intellect and by his will, adapts himself to his surroundings in such a measure that he controls all other forms of animal life, and even overcomes natural obstacles by a force which is above nature. Thus we see man is created in the likeness of the Most High Creator.
After all these ages we cannot find in the advanced theories of modern literature a hypothesis that may compare with the plain statement of facts by the Holy Fathers during the first centuries of Christianity, as we have them concisely epitomized by St. John of Damascus. He says: “The Divinity is indescribable and incomprehensible. For no one knoweth the Son, but the Father, and the Father no one knoweth save the Son (Matt., xi. 27). And also the Holy Ghost knoweth that which is of God, as the spirit of man knoweth the things of a man (1 Cor., ii. 11). Beside the first and blessed Being no one ever knew God, unless God had revealed Himself to someone; no one, not only of mankind, but no one of the celestial powers, nor of the Cherubim and Seraphim. Yet God has not left us entirely ignorant of Himself. The very knowledge of the existence of God the Creator has Himself implanted in our nature. And creation itself, the government of nature and its preservation proclaim the greatness of God. Above this, first through the law and the Prophets, then through His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God revealed to us as much knowledge of Himself as we are capable of containing. Therefore, all that has been given us by the law, the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Evangelists, we accept, acknowledge, and respect, and we seek nothing more. Thus God, as the Omniscient One and the Provider of that which is profitable for each one of us, has revealed all that is for our good, and kept in silence that which we are not capable of containing. Being satisfied thereby, we will keep to this, not transfixing the borders of eternity and not overstepping Divine tradition.”
In the light of Divine revelation it becomes clear to our reason that, excepting the one, true, most perfect God, another cannot exist, because the most wise, most powerful, the most High and perfect Being must be only one, beside whom there is no other.
The Christian Faith is the religion of the Most Holy Trinity. And this is nowhere so plainly demonstrated as it is in the books of the New Testament. The preacher with the hearers and doers of the Word would be unequal to the task to take up at this moment for examination the great number of testimonies we have in the history of the New Testament concerning the Orthodox Faith, in which we worship One God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity. But this is not all. If you turn to the books of the Old Testament, it can be seen that the Patriarchs of the nations and the saints of old had almost as clear a conception of the nature of God as we Christians, and believing in One God they at the same time worshipped, more or less consciously, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Most Holy Trinity, while distinct in Persons, is of equal Divine Substance, and equal Majesty. We do not belittle the awful magnitude of this Truth when we follow the example of the Holy Fathers by taking various illustrations from created life to help us in some measure grasp this doctrine of the Divine Three in One, and One in Three. In man’s soul the image of God is more or less reflected. Take for instance the memory which recalls the hour of Divine Liturgy, the understanding which reasons upon the duty of public prayer, or considers the excuses that might be pleaded for staying at home, and then the will which chooses one course or the other.
And now let us remember that, although we are among the weakest members of all creation, we may become, by being faithful Christians, partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter, i. 4) that by the grace of the Holy Ghost, who has regenerated us, we are all the children of the Heavenly Father and brethren to His only begotten Son (John, i. 12, 13; Luke, xiii. 21). Thus we may come into the closest moral relations with the Triune God Himself, if only, believing in Him and earnestly drawing toward Him with hope, we shall love Him with our whole heart, with our whole soul, and with our whole mind (Matt., xxii. 27). Then, without doubt, the promise of the Savior will be fulfilled for us. Jesus said: If a man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John, xiv. 13). And then also we will understand the meaning of these words of the Apostle: Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Cor., iii. 16). Amen.
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Hypostasis
Symbol d’Athanasius