21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (year A)

(Rom 11:33–36)

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways beyond our understanding!

Romans 11:34 For who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ever been his counsellor? 

Faced with the mystery of salvation offered through faith in Christ, the believer’s mind is left speechless. It  pauses in holy contemplation, without ever reaching full understanding, and Paul can do no more than sing of such a great mystery. God is an impenetrable abyss of riches, wisdom and knowledge. The more one delves into it, the more one remains on the surface. Paul realises how impossible it is for the human mind to form an adequate concept of the divine perfections, and so he exclaims: ‘O depth!’

This depth is that of riches. God’s riches point to the infinite abundance of resources God possesses to bring about his plans. These riches are his goodness and mercy. Everything springs from mercy; everything lives by God’s mercy; everything finds its fulfilment through God’s mercy. God’s riches are God Himself, who gives Himself to the believing soul. We are saved by this wealth of love. God’s mercy knows no bounds, neither in space nor in time. From Adam to the very last person who will be born on earth, salvation is accomplished solely through the depth of this mercy. Only those who turn away from it remain excluded from salvation.

This depth is also that of wisdom, with which God governs all creatures and leads them to their preordained eternal end. God’s wisdom is revealed in the way in which He arranges the means to achieve the end He has set Himself, making use even of the obstacles that human freedom places in the way of His work. God knows the best path for each of us, so that He may enrich us with His love. Only He knows the best way to do this, and it is always a mystery to the believing soul. It is a mystery that no one will ever be able to fathom or comprehend. It is a mystery to be accepted solely by faith.

Depth is also found in knowledge, by which God chooses the most appropriate means for the end He has set Himself. God treats each person in a unique way. God knows what each of us is made of and takes us by the hand in the right direction, leading us to the goal, to the purpose for which we were created, provided we allow ourselves to be taken by the hand and led.

The whole history of mankind is written with God’s wisdom and knowledge and is filled with His mercy. But within this knowledge, wisdom and mercy, who can fathom its depths? No one. If one tries to make sense of oneself within the mystery of this divine wisdom and knowledge, one fails.

This threefold depth teaches us that God’s judgements are truly unfathomable to the human mind and His ways truly inaccessible to humankind; we do not fully understand their nature. Adoration and prayer are the two things necessary for humankind if it is to stand before the mystery that surrounds it. Man would like to bring God under his control, but there is an unbridgeable gulf that separates God from mankind and makes Him Other than them, so that God’s self-revelation is unfathomable to man, and His ways are closed to him. To say that we are the drop and He is the ocean would already be an unacceptable comparison, for it would imply drawing a parallel between ourselves and God, whereas in reality no such comparison can exist.

In this divine depth, man can only surrender himself, praying that the Lord may grant him, if it pleases Him, to reveal to him that which the human mind is capable of comprehending. For the rest, he must live everything with an attitude of faith, that is, in acceptance of God’s will, which will be fulfilled when He has determined that the time has come for Israel to return to the grace of salvation. For, let us not forget, the context of these words of Paul concerns Israel.

‘For who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ever been his counsellor?’ Man is called upon not to make demands of God. God’s mind is so lofty and profound that it can never be fully comprehended in all its depth. This must be clear, especially today when man thinks he knows everything, that there are no longer any limits to his knowledge. Man must realise one thing: since everything has been made according to God’s mind and is imbued with profound wisdom, man cannot cross this boundary—that is, he cannot think that everything is knowable by his own mind.

Since he does not know, man cannot manipulate creation as he pleases; he cannot treat that which is made by divine wisdom by correcting it with human wisdom, for the damage caused could be irreversible. But man today does not wish to have limits, and when he has no limits, he places himself outside the moral law that governs the very being of man and of all things. Man cannot tolerate another imposing limits on his knowledge. He does not realise, however, that his science and technology are but a paltry thing in the face of the infinite wisdom with which God has made all things.

Paul wishes to invite humankind to remain in its proper place, and that place is humility: it is the acceptance of God’s plan of salvation, which is always above and beyond all possible human knowledge.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, in the Mystery of the Trinity

Jesus’ Prophetic Discourse (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to Saint Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)