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"ONE DEGREE OF GLORY TO ANOTHER” TODAY’S THEME: “ONE DEGREE OF GLORY TO ANOTHER” [2Cor 3:18] is our theme for today’s “Walking with the Word”. When we speak of liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church, we refer to the experience of worship and how we worship. The way Catholics worship can be traced back to the apostolic age. Over the course of the centuries, many refinements have been applied to Catholic worship, but the essentials have always remained the same. Glorifying God is central to the Roman Catholic Church Therefore, it’s not surprising that the Church organizes each year of worship very carefully. To accomplish this task for all the Catholic parishes, oratories, monasteries, and convents in the world, the Church uses a liturgical calendar which recalls the wonderful events of salvation history and the heroic lives of saints. The liturgical calendar also identifies the texts of Sacred Scripture to be proclaimed in each worship celebration. About one-third of the Bible is presented in any given liturgical year. Remarkably, the Roman Catholic Church presents the whole Bible to the faithful in its worship celebrations every three years—thirty-three times over the course of a century! For the Catholic Church, every new liturgical year starts four Sundays before Christmas and concludes twelve months later with the great worship celebration honoring Christ the King. This makes sense because the four Sundays before Christmas are called the weeks of Advent; in other words, we remember the prophets and the people of God who longed for the coming of Christ. The season of Advent (Lat. adventus) helps the Body of Christ prepare to celebrate joyously the birth of our Saviour. It is also a time to make atonement and reparation for sins—with an eye to standing before God for our personal judgment as well as our longing for the second coming of Christ in his glory. Every liturgical year in the Roman Catholic Church presents in miniature form the whole of salvation history: the coming of Christ and his humble birth in Bethlehem’s stable, the life of Jesus and his proclamation of the Father’s Kingdom, the forty days of solemn anticipation of our Saviour’s passion and death, the most glorious celebration of the Lord’s resurrection on the day of Easter, and the blessed grace-filled days as the Church joyfully anticipates its baptism on the day of Pentecost. All through the liturgical year, the Church recalls the great saints whose ministry and lives are honored as outstanding examples of Christian witness. The prayers of the saints and their heroic deeds never fail to inspire the Body of Christ in every generation. Little wonder that the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of faith! It’s right and appropriate, therefore, that the closing weeks of every liturgical year emphasize the urgent task of salvation. The worship celebration of Christ the King reminds that he is very near to us. He is coming soon. Hence, we are to be prepared morally and spiritually as if Christ would return within the hour; we are to work in his Kingdom as if he were to delay his second coming another thousand years. For Scripture says, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” [Mk 13:32] No human being possesses the power to prophesy the hour of his own death; no witness of God’s Holy Word possesses the power to prophesy the day or hour of the Lord’s return in his glory. Any sinner who claims such a power or insider information will answer to Christ in judgment for exalting himself over the Son of God. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TODAY’S LESSON: Our lesson for today is called “ONE DEGREE OF GLORY TO ANOTHER”. The coming of Christ in glory is always associated with what the Church calls the “four last things”: heaven, hell, death and judgment. Whether friends of God or enemies of God, all human beings are sinners. And all sinners must reckon with the “four last things”. All sinful human beings must die, and all sinful human beings must stand in personal judgment before God at the moment of death. As difficult as the reality of death may be, the experience of death is not decisive for human beings. Rather, it is what follows death that is decisive for all human souls—the moment of personal judgment before God. At the moment when the totality of one’s merits and sins is revealed before the resplendent light of God’s glory, it makes all the difference in the world whether or not a soul is a friend of God or an enemy of God. “The Lord preserves all who love him,” as Scripture says, “but all the wicked he will destroy.” [Psa 145:20] In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus speaks favorably of the “sheep” and denounces the “goats”: WHEN THE Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. [Mt 25:31-33] To those on his left, the Son of God, the Christ, will say: THEN HE will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. [Mt 25:41-43,46] Matthew’s gospel offers a clue to help us more perfectly understand the mystery of the “last things”. Matthew’s clue is glory, and the gospel author gives us its context: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne." [Mt 25:31] We speak of God’s glory in the sense that it is a resplendent light, a light that reveals the supremacy of God’s greatness and majesty. God’s glory has no equal in heaven or on earth. Nothing in heaven or on earth surpasses God’s glory. Moreover, the days are coming when God’s glory will demand repentance for even the slightest hint of indifference. The slightest disrespect or hostility to God or one's neighbor, no matter how common such things are today, will be annihilated. God’s glory will conquer all “principalities”, “powers”, “world rulers of this present darkness”, and all “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” [Eph 6:12] What about the righteous man and the evildoer in Matthew’s parable of judgment? Does God reveal one face to the godly and another face to his enemy? Does God change his nature depending on whether a friend or enemy appears before him in judgment? Is God emotional? Does God love in one moment and inflict wrath in the next? In actuality, God is none of these things. God has one face—a glorious face of love, justice and mercy. He shows his holy face to both friend and enemy alike, even at the moment of judgment. God has one nature—God is a divine Spirit, eternal, absolute and unchanging. God reveals himself and his divine nature to sinner and saint alike. God is not emotional like human beings. Man’s fallen nature leads him to be careless in love, to be wrathful when provoked, to sin when he is tempted. God, whose divine nature is not fallen, is perfect love itself. When human beings commit provocation against him, God is merciful. In confronting evil, God will destroy it. The word “supremacy” refers to a power that none other can rival, equal or even touch. Nothing can rival God’s holiness. Nothing can equal or even approach God’s holiness. God’s holiness is supreme. The supremacy of God’s holiness is his glory! Therefore, when a friend of God stands before God at the moment of death for his personal judgment, what will he behold? He will behold God’s glory. And the enemy of God? What will he behold at his judgment? The same glory of God. When the the righteous man stands before Christ in his glory to be judged, what will he see? In heaven, the friend of God will behold the Lord’s fullness of glory, the fullness of which is hidden from him now. Nevertheless, there are many ways by which the righteous man may be acquainted with God’s glory in this world. God’s glory is revealed in the splendor of creation. His glory is manifested in the majesty of his divine Word. Truly, glory shone from the manger at Bethlehem and blazed from the cross. We await the glorious coming of the eternal Christ in human form, "a man like us in all things but sin". [SACRAMENTARY EP IV] We experience the glory of true worship and the celebration of the Seven Great Graces. The apostle Paul referred to what is hidden when he wrote: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.” [1Cor 13:12] The righteous man beholds the glory of Christ even now—in this life, in this very hour—as love itself, mercy, grace, and peace. The glory of Christ is the righteous man’s daily bread. It is his salvation. It is his protection. The glory of God is the pledge of the righteous man’s resurrection from the dead. Glory is the divine destiny of the friend of God. All these things prepare the righteous man’s “eyes of faith” to behold the light of God’s glory at judgment and not turn away. When the the evildoer stands before Christ in his glory at judgment, what will he see? Like the friend of God, the evildoer will behold the fullness of the Lord’s glory, but unlike the righteous man, he will recoil. He will shrink back. He will cower. He will tremble. The evildoer will see in heaven before God’s throne everything he refused to see with “eyes of faith” on earth. He will learn that because he rejected God’s glory as an offering of mercy and refused to turn over his heart to the Lord that God’s glory will come to him on a day, at an hour, in a moment he least expects. God’s glory will sweep the unrepentent evildoer away with his evil. Having rejected God’s glory as mercy during his lifetime on earth, the unrepentent sinner will know God’s glory in heaven as the invincible conqueror. He who detested God and his neighbor on earth will stand before the Throne of Grace hating God and all his heavenly host. In his arrogance, the evildoer wants to judge God himself. He who hated God and neighbor on earth will accuse God of hating him in heaven. Echoing the poisonous thoughts of his own heart, the enemy of God will cry out, God is wrathful, God is vengeful, God himself is evil! Nothing could be further from the truth. The father who embraced his prodigal son on the road is none other than God who enfolds the repentent sinner with his glory—his glory as mercy! The story of the good Samaritan is the story of God who binds our hurts and wounds in his glory—his healing glory as mercy. And the most tender portrait of God’s glory was given to us by Jesus Christ himself who said with great sadness:
The friend of God longs to see God’s glory. He is drawn to it. He hungers for it. He is like Moses who said to God, "I pray thee, show me thy glory." And God answered, saying:
When Jesus spoke of his Father’s house as having many rooms, he was speaking of the mansion of God’s glory. The Father’s glory is a palace of unimaginable beauty, and the souls of all the faithful will shelter in it like the birds which make their nests in the branches of a great tree. [cf. Mt 13:31-32] The friend of God wants to make his home in God’s glory. He knows that the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared a place for him in his Father’s house. In fact, when Our Lord returns in glory, he will take the Church to himself so that where he is, the Church may be also. [cf. Jn 14:2-4] Let's examine the relationship between God's glory and human freedom. So many persons today talk about being oppressed and depressed. Feeling trapped and cornered, they tell us that they hate their jobs; family members despise each other; people are up to their noses in debt; the present is pushing young people up against a future which has petrified; faith and human life are disposable like plastic and paper; the modern world is a landfill—it smells and is burning. Well, let’s face it, this is the Way of the World, the way of a fallen world, and in some sense, all of us are its children. Look closely, however, and you’ll begin to notice that many men and women are in this world but not of it. They refuse to surrender their lives to a world that is passing away. [cf. 1Cor 7:31] “But as it is,” Sacred Scripture tells us, “they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” [Heb 11:16] But the children of this world place their hope in what they see. They imagine that by their manipulation of the material world, they can reject God and save themselves. The Epistle of James expresses it this way: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” [Jas 4:4] Yet, knowing that a child’s nature is to follow, who then has captured the minds and hearts of the children of this world? The spirit of slavery! [cf. Rom 8:15] Regarding good men and women who aren’t rushing headlong through the gate of the fallen world, those who aren’t trotting down the easy way that results in disaster [cf. Mt 7:13], who are they? They’re the ones who’ve received the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts; they're the ones who believe in the name of Jesus. They’re the ones whom the Lord Jesus has empowered to become children of God. [cf. Jn 1:12] Who then is leading and guiding the children of God? The Spirit of God! [cf. Rom 8:14] As the apostle Paul makes clear: IT IS the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. [Rom 8:16-17] Now, the children of God have set their hope on obtaining “glorious liberty”. [Rom 8:21] These men and women know that the world can never give them “glorious liberty” because the world is in “bondage to decay” [Rom 8:21]. In point of fact, “we know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now”. [Rom 8:22] Man, devoured by fear, can’t save himself. He can’t save the world any more than the world can save him. Quite the opposite. The world is destined to be saved by the “glorious liberty of the children of God” who are led by the Spirit of Grace to call God their Father! [cf. Rom 8:15] Dear friends, this glorious liberty is God’s glory! It’s the heavenly mansion you’ve heard about all your life, do you see? It’s the heavenly city for which you wait with eager longing, do you see?
Christian men and women aren’t trapped or cornered. Theirs is a new nature of grace. Theirs is a glorious future. For Christians, faith and human life are precious and enduring. And the modern world, though “groaning in travail” is place of hope and beauty. You see, Christians who seek and find God discover his glory to be their freedom:
Contemplate for a moment on the glorious splendor of the Lord’s majesty and on his wonderful works. [cf. Psa 145:5] Reflect, if you will, on the love that Jesus Christ has for you. Everything that his Father made known to him, he revealed to you. He did this so that you would understand and live out his commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” [Jn 15:12; cf. Jn 15:12-15] He proved the depth of his love by giving up his divine prerogatives and by dying for you on the cross—“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” [Jn 1:14] Not out of ignorance or stupidity did the Lord lay down his life, nor for servants or because of slavery. The Lord Jesus laid down his life on his own accord and by his own power [cf. Jn 10:17-18] for all who would be his friends—that they might cry out joyfully with him, saying, “Abba, Father!” Remarkably, at the moment of his betrayal by Judas Iscariot, Jesus of Nazareth entered into his glory: “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” [Jn 13:31]
RECAP: When you’re tempted to feel sorry for yourself, when you think that it’s all about you, when you perceive that no one has suffered as much as you, when you think the book is about to be closed and the gate shut, you need to stop the treadmill of self-pity and get off. Then, get on your knees and ask God in prayer to take you into his glory. Do you think this is asking too much? Do you think such a request would be an act of arrogance before God? Well, let the Lord Jesus answer for himself, for the glory that the Father gave him, he has given to the Church:
Just when you think you’ve run out of things for which to thank God the Father, lift up your eyes to heaven and give thanks that your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the “King of Glory” [Psa 24:7-10; cf. Rev 5:12-13] Call out to him, and he will answer you. Give thanks to God that you have received Christ into your heart. Bless the name of the Lord. Thank the Lord for all the graces and blessings of your future reserved for you by him and which he alone knows: WHICH NONE of the princes of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: "That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him." [1Cor 2:8-9; Douay-Rheims] When you have prayed concerning these things, give thanks to God for your baptism in the Spirit. Give thanks that by God’s will, you have been birthed by grace into his glorious Kingdom. But do not cut your prayer short. You must also thank God for the incomparable privilege of beholding the glory of Jesus Christ in his and your own humanity. With profound humility, tell your Father in heaven how grateful you are that the Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness of grace and truth, has shared God's glory with those who love him. When you have done these things, then go out into the world as a child of God. Speak to every one of the glory of God’s Kingdom. Tell everyone how gracious God is and how faithful. To all whom you meet, make known God’s kindness and compassion and the splendid glory of his Kingdom!
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