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Not in the full comprehension, not in the manipulative use, not in the prideful control, BUT IN THE NAME OF THE BLESSED TRINITY!

"One God in Trinity and Trinity in unity...neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance...Father uncreate, Son incomprehensible. Holy Ghost eternal...yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. Well, there! You got all that?

It's about as clear as mud. Which reminds us of the dirt the Trinity used in making man. Which reminds us how sinful man ends up a few years after being planted in the ground, six feet down. Dirt doesn't quite understand the gardener. The painting doesn't quite know how to perfectly describe the artist. And, we are told in Scripture that the clay pot has no right to criticize the potter. Pretty mysterious. If you think too long and hard about this Trinity stuff your head begins to hurt. So, do we just ignore it and eat, drink, and be merry? No. The pet dog doesn't ignore it's master just because it doesn't understand the workings of the internal combustion machine, when its' master invites it for a ride. It loyaly follows in trust and faith... in joyful companionship with he who loves it.

You're like your sinful father Adam. In your "old nature" you sin and rebel like he did. Your earthly fate will be the same as his: ashes to ashes dust to dust. At one time Adam and his spouse knew the Trinity perfectly. They understood the Three in One and the One in Three because they had full communion and fellowship with the Godhead. But post fall, Adam's ability to grasp God wasn't any better than yours, or Nicodemus'. Because of Adam's greed and pride, because of your daily sins, everyone is a Pharisee by nature. Nicodemus was a member of the "Pharisee party."

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night because he was scared. He didn't want anyone to know he "believed" in this Jesus. This is how we live most of our lives; publicly Christian until it becomes more convenient to tone down the Jesus talk.

Your sin keeps you from grasping the pure inner awareness of Trinitarian dynamics. But your sin doesn't keep you from having Jesus. Jesus redeems you from all sin, including the sin of denseness and ignorance. The same way you couldn't decide to choose Jesus to come into your hearts, you don't choose to believe in the Trinity. Both realities are worked upon you by way of gift. Grace. Love bestowing life.

Nicodemus came to Jesus that night because Nicodemus had heard the Words of Jesus, either directly or by way of a third party "gospel-er." Nicodemus just hadn't heard about Jesus (even Herod had heard about Jesus' exploits) but had heard the Words of the Word made Flesh. The Holy Ghost had stirred faith in this leader of the Jews, this Pharisee, and had drawn him to Christ the same way you were called by the Gospel.

Nicodemus confessed that this Rabbi was: 1.) a Teacher, 2.) a worker of Signs, and, 3.) that God was with Him. Not a bad beginning Trinitarian Confession. In fact the way the two of them got together, itself, bespeaks the Trinity: a Pharisee is drawn to the Nazarene (the Holy Spirit doing the drawing). It is to Jesus that he comes (the Son), and the creed is stated that the Nazarene is of God (the Father). Much is at work here. There are no random chance meetings in God's Kingdom.

How did the Lord respond to Nicodemus' halting, incomplete, yet sincere desires to know the Redeemer? He affirmed this Jew by teaching him even more. Jesus said AMEN, AMEN, that is: most assuredly! What Nicodemus had testified to with his sinful lips was all true. But Jesus wanted this Pharisee, all you Pharisees, to know how it is that these truths have come to you, how it is that you are all in His Presence. So Jesus gave a mini-sermon on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

Jesus told Nicodemus to believe! Then He told him how: Be Born Again. Grace. The Lord never demands something which He isn't Himself willing to give. Nicodemus was correct on a purely carnal, physical level. Nobody can "birth" themselves Nobody can go back into their mother a second time to be delivered again. Would that the "decision theology" adherents of today truly hear our Lord's Words and understand them. One must be born of water and the Spirit. Jesus was speaking of that washing in faith which comes upon His brothers and sisters when they are regenerated in Holy Baptism. For it is at the Font that the Trinity comes upon the "little pagan" and makes Their home in him. The devil is driven out and the Spirit overshadows the infant delivering the Bodily Jesus in the water. This burial with Christ into His death allows for the child to be united with Jesus in His glorious resurrection. It allows the newly made Christian to call Jesus' Father, his or her Father, Our Father.

You know who your moms and dads are without having to know DNA makeup, without having to be able to explain genetic tags and codes. You know them in their love for you; their fellowship with you. Every Christian child has a glimpse of the Trinity when he or she is embraced by mom and dad. You confess the Trinity not with reason and rational precision, but with your tongue and lips. "Whosover will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith..." Note, the Creed doesn't say "command" it, but "hold" it! You can hold a diamond and not understand mining or jewelry making. The little baby can grasp it's momma and not understand geneology.

"He, therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity..." And you best "think" these incomprehensible realities by speaking them; by praying them, by Invoking them and singing them in doxological wonder. You "think" the Catholic Faith, which saves, by Confessing It, by Confessing the Trinity. Belief is not performing rhetorical feats of descriptive clarification. Belief is trust, the simple trust of a little child. Now you understand why the Lord chastised the disciples for trying to keep the babes from His loving arms. Now you see why on Trinity Sunday we have a Gospel with Jesus talking about Baptism to Nicodemus. Now you see how it is salutary to teach our young catechumens to make the sign of the cross as Luther instructed. Every time you join index and middle finger to thumb you are forming your body, the body redeemed by Christ's Blood and signed with His Name, into three points for Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Every time you make the sign of the cross you have your two last outer fingers pressed against your palm reminding you of Your Savior's two perfect natures: True God and True Man. His two works of obedience: active (His perfect obedience keeping the law) and passive (His sacrefice on calvery). Every time you touch your forehead and breast, and shoulder to shoulder you are tracing on your very body His Holy Triune Name, and the Shape of His bitter suffering and death, which brought you life... life in your Baptism, the very first time that Holy Triune Sign was made upon you.

Enough explanation. You have that Good News of Jesus' love. He obeyed the Law for you; He died for your sins on the tree; He attaches you to Himself in Baptism, He opens your lips so that your mouth can declare His praise. You've already have! You have confessed the "longer" creed. Join with me now in confessing the shorter Creed. In faith, let us together make the sign of the Holy Cross...