Out of all the Sundays in the year, Trinity Sunday is the most challenging one for me to preach. The word Trinity doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible. And yet, it’s central to our understanding of God.

As Chelsey Harmon, a part-time PhD student studying historical examples of Trinitarian mysticism and theology at the University of Edinburgh, puts it:

“The nature of the three persons and their union will forever be out of our reach, but at least we know that we will have some inklings about it because of what Jesus promises to us.”

Last week’s Gospel spoke of Jesus’ promise that God would send the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Truth—to help the disciples understand. This week, Jesus tells us the Spirit will also reveal things to come. Though Jesus speaks in the future tense, we are meant to read this as a present reality. The Spirit is the Spirit of Truth—for all time.

In our Gospel today Jesus says: When the Spirit of truth comes, the Spirit will guide you into all the truth. The Spirit will not speak on the Spirit’s own, but will speak whatever the Spirit hears.  The Spirit glorifies Jesus by taking what is Jesus’s and declare it to us.

One of the reason the Spirit of God exists is to help us understand the mystery of God especially as God exists in three persons. In the Old Testament God revealed to God’s servants in many ways, yet God was never fully revealed.  The fullest revelation comes in Jesus Christ, who is both fully human and fully God. But even Jesus doesn’t confine the fullness of God. 

God is best revealed in Jesus Christ as God of love. Out of love God sent Jesus Christ to save the world. Jesus Christ, in turn, partially explains God to us, and entrusts the Holy Spirit to continue guiding us into truth.   

The Spirit helps us grasp that truth. The Spirit shares with the Father and the Son the desire to be known. Jesus says: The Spirit will glorify me, because The Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you.  

The three persons of the Trinity are united in message, purpose, and commitment to see the truth prevail. And so, through the Spirit, we grow in our understanding of the Trinitarian God.

But let’s be honest: understanding the Trinity is hard. Even Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, The Spirit will guide you into all the truth.” That’s why he promised the Spirit—to guide us gradually.

One thing is certain: we will never fully understand God this side of eternity. But we will grow in understanding as we listen to the Spirit within us. The depth of that understanding may differ from person to person, depending on our faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

A helpful metaphor is the story of the six blind men and the elephant. Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.” 

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was. Every one of them touched the elephant. 

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first one who touched his leg. 

“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail. 

“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. 

“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. 

“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. 

“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant. 

Each of the six touched a different part of the same elephant each believing their individual perception to be the whole truth. Each man’s perspective is sincere but incomplete. The story illustrates that different perspectives can lead to different understandings of the same reality. 

Likewise, our understanding of God—particularly the Trinity—is limited by our perspective. Disagreements arise not necessarily from error, but from partial perceptions of a complex reality. 

That, I believe, is how we’re meant to encounter God: not with full comprehension, but with reverent curiosity, awe, and a heart open to deeper truth. We get to know God the Trinity through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

To echo Chelsey Harmon again: The nature of the three persons and their union will forever be out of our reach. We all try to comprehend the mystery of Trinity that is not fully comprehensible. Our faith with the aid of the Holy Spirt can help us to relate to this Triune God.

Yet our faith—nourished by the Holy Spirit—helps us relate to this Triune God. And it assures us of what Paul wrote in Romans: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” [Romans 5:5]