Dear brothers and sisters, I congratulate you on the feast known by two names: the Baptism of the Lord and the Epiphany. It is called the Baptism because the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, and it is called the Epiphany because it was the first time in history when it was explicitly revealed to people that God is a Trinity: the Father speaking from heaven, God the Son Incarnate being baptized, and the Holy Spirit appearing in the form of a dove. Not everyone was worthy to witness this Epiphany, only the holy prophet John the Baptist. For God’s mysteries are not for sinful people.
The Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). It was John the Baptist who had a pure heart and was deemed worthy, so he testified to what he had seen to his pupils. In the Old Testament, people knew God only as One. But now, as the Lord Himself proclaimed after His baptism, the Kingdom of God is near, and God Himself has come nearer to us. Just as someone walking towards an object can only see it indistinctly from a distance, but as they get closer, they can see it more clearly, God revealed Himself to us as He came nearer. We came to understand that He is not merely One but triune: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a specific feature of Christianity, and many stumble over it. Different people, including non-Christians, sectarians, and atheists, ask mockingly or with sincere bewilderment: how can God be both Three and One simultaneously? It should be either three or one, they say. Indeed, in our world, it is either three or one, according to human reasoning. However, the unfathomable Creator transcends the laws of His creation. The Christian teaching of the Holy Trinity is much more fitting for the Creator and better expresses His essential inscrutability and eternity.
Still, critics insist that everything about God must be clear to them: it’s either three or one, so you either believe in three gods as pagans or you believe in one, so there is no Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. They demand that the Creator, who is above all, shouldn’t be above their minds and that the incomprehensible God should be comprehensible to them.
But let us think how much we truly understand about His creation.
I’m sure you’ve all seen earthworms. When it rains, they come out from the ground and crawl somewhere aimlessly. Once, I got curious and tried to find out why they do it. I’ve read about it, and it turns out that scientists don’t really know why earthworms come out during the rain. Experts give us different theories and hypotheses, but there is no universally accepted answer that would satisfy all scientists.
If even the greatest minds of humanity do not fully understand earthworms, tiny creatures that crawl beneath our feet, how can we expect regular sinful people to fully understand God, the Creator of the Universe? No, we can’t. It’s just not possible. That's why God doesn’t reveal himself to everyone but only to the worthy, like Saint John the Baptist and the many saints after him. Those who purify their hearts, humble themselves, and come to God with repentance are blessed to know God as He opens their minds to do so. But as long as a person is apart from God and remains in sin, they are unworthy of knowledge and understanding of God.
Trying to understand the Lord fully is impossible because it would mean that the infinite God might fit into our minds. It is absurd to think that the One who is beyond the entire universe could fit into our understanding. But the Lord still makes Him known to the pure in heart to the extent that people can comprehend.
The fact that He has revealed to us the triune nature of His being shows how much God loves and trusts us, for secrets are shared only with those who are loved and trusted. We should cherish His love, treasure it, and reciprocate this love and trust in our lives.
Also, when God revealed Himself as the Trinity, He gave us an opportunity to humble ourselves and acknowledge, “I’m not above God, and I don’t fully comprehend Him, but I trust Him. If God said He is the Trinity, I believe Him.” Some Muslims ask why we call Jesus the Son of God. We do so because God Himself said, “This is My Son” during His baptism. Who are we to doubt God and argue with Him, saying, “No, you got something wrong because we can’t fit it into our human minds, and it contradicts our earthly notions!”
As Christians, we don’t argue with God. That’s our path to cleansing our hearts: we embrace humility and accept what the Lord reveals to us.