21st Sunday, Year A, Second Reading (Romans 11:33-36)

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” ³⁵ “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” ³⁶ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

This Sunday, the second reading continues to be from Paul’s letter to the Romans and is a doxology, liturgical praise for God. The apostle’s focus is on the nature of God, which is incomprehensible to humans. Everything about God is beyond us and so we can only sigh, as Paul does: “Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”

In the previous passage, Paul had discussed why the Jews, God’s chosen people, rejected their Messiah, who, instead, had been accepted by the despised pagans. This obviously caused Paul a great deal of pain, but he persisted in his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. Why? Because no human can ever understand God’s reasons and so must follow him in faith, faith that all will turn out well.

Paul follows this, in verses 34 and 35, with three rhetorical questions, and the answer to each is clearly “nobody”. No one can see into the mind of God and understand his reasoning, although many of us tell him what he should or should not do. The final question, which echoes Job, concerns God’s freely given grace – no one can make a deal with God because we receive everything from him and so have nothing to offer.

Paul then concludes in verse 36 by praising God. Paul’s basic point is that all of creation comes from God, but not only is he their source, he also sustains them. The universe and everything in it continues because he wishes it to do so. He is actively at work in our world, even if we do not always recognize it. He has a purpose for everything. God reigns over the world and is mighty beyond our comprehension. Therefore, to God be glory forever, which is essentially a statement of fact, although it is also Paul’s desire. To show the latter, Paul ends with “Amen”, which means “so be it.”