A HOMILY FOR THE GREAT FEAST OF HOLY PENTECOST
About the Greatness and Goodness of Our God, the Most Holy Trinity
Brothers and sisters!
Today we celebrate the great and glorious feast of Holy Pentecost, when the Spirit of God descended upon the Apostles and the other first Christians in the Upper Room on Mount Sion, imparting to them the gift of speaking in tongues and all the other gifts of grace. This feast is also known as Holy Trinity, or the feast of the Trinity, or Trinity Sunday, because on this day the third person of the Trinity and thus, the Holy Trinity in Its entirety, was openly manifested to the world. God the Son partially revealed Himself of old to the patriarchs and prophets, then more fully in the Incarnation. In His person He also revealed God the Father, for Christ is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.[1] Whoever has seen Him has, as it were, seen the Father. Finally, the Holy Spirit, Who had partially made Himself known to the saints of the Old Testament, revealed Himself in all His power and glory to the New Testament Church when He poured out His grace on Pentecost. Ever since then He continues to manifest Himself through the life of the Church: through the Holy Mysteries, the Divine Services, and the inner spiritual life of the Christians. He also manifests Himself by providing extraordinary help when it is especially needed and conducive to our salvation. This assistance takes a wide variety of forms: physical and spiritual healing; strength to confess the Faith, to sacrifice ourselves for it, and even to die for it, if need be; the power to work miracles, as a testimony to personal sanctity; and so forth.
With the manifestation of the divine Spirit on Holy Pentecost, God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, Who infinitely transcends everything that exists, fully revealed Himself as Unity in Trinity. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us say a few words today about the greatness, majesty, goodness, holiness, wisdom, and infinite power of the Lord, God, and Master of the Christians, about the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit.
Solely out of His goodness, the Holy Trinity, at the beginning of the age, brought into being the heavens and the earth, the distant stars and the deep seas, angels and men, animals and plants: everything that exists in the natural and supernatural realms. He made all things according to an unfathomable plan, in accordance with a distinct order which the human mind can probe forever, yet can never more than begin to understand. For as the prophet Isaiah says, Who hath known the mind of the Lord? and who hath been His counsellor, to instruct Him? Or with whom hath He taken counsel, and he hath instructed Him? Or who hath taught Him judgment, or who hath taught Him the way of understanding? All the nations are counted as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, and shall be counted as spittle. All the nations are as nothing, and counted as nothing. It is God that comprehended the circle of the earth; and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers: God that set up the heavens as a chamber, and stretched it out as a tent to dwell in.[2]
Out of the four elements the Holy Trinity brought the universe into being. He crowned the circle of the year with four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. The sun sings to Him; the moon glorifies Him; the stars gather together and fall down before Him; the light obeys Him; the oceans tremble before Him. He established the earth upon the waters, set barriers of sand round about the sea, and shed abroad the air for breathing. He hid in the ground a great wealth of gems, minerals, metals, and oil; He gave to the soil power to produce and sustain life; He caused the springs to gush forth fresh water constantly. He forgot nothing; He foresaw all things necessary for our life. The human mind is astounded, it is stupefied before the wisdom, goodness, and providence of the Holy Trinity.
But the greatest work of the Holy Trinity is not His creation of the universe and His sustaining of it, or even His creation of man, with a soul that is of more value than the whole earth, the heavens, and all the stars. The greatest work of the Holy Trinity is the redemption of man after his Fall; it is man’s exaltation to the heavens and his deification, his sharing in the divine nature and his transformation into a god by the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the great work of God the Holy Trinity, this the great truth of the Christian revelation, this the constant hymn of our Holy Orthodox Church. Never does our Holy Church cease to extol how God the Holy Trinity, knowing from before all ages that man would fall, determined upon the most God-befitting manner to raise him up, not just to his first estate, but infinitely higher. To this end God the Son assumed flesh in the womb of the most holy, most pure, and Ever-Virgin Mary. He taught us the way to salvation and deification, suffered dread crucifixion, was sealed in a narrow tomb, went down into Hades and shattered its locks and bolts, arose ineffably on the third day, ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, seating human nature with Himself upon the throne of glory. After this God the Holy Spirit descended, on the last and great and saving day of Pentecost, and shed abroad the grace of salvation, the first-fruits of which are the multitude of holy martyrs and the other saints who, after a lifetime of spiritual endeavor and a victorious death, inherited paradise. And now, this wondrous grace continues to provide for the salvation of the whole Christian race, and ensures that everything that is opposed to God will, at the proper time, be utterly annihilated, along with death itself; for, as the Scriptures say, The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.[3] And so, brothers and sisters, with our Holy Orthodox Church, let us never cease to hymn our God in Trinity, and all His wondrous works, and especially the most wondrous economy of salvation, chanting, “O most holy Trinity, our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, glory be to Thee! Amen.
[1] Heb. 1:3
[2] Is. 40:15,17,22
[3] I Cor. 15:26
