12/08/2024

Both the Old Testament and the New have moments when they speak of the Glory of God. For many of us throughout the centuries these reports of visions were how we tried to picture God's actual "being".  

The Incarnation means that Jesus, true man and true God, could become the visible focus of our worship but even the New Testament has tried to describe the "Glory" of the Nativity and Transfiguration. The last book, Revelations, is solely concerned with picturing the Kingdom of Heaven and there have been many who have been captivated by the details of this vision.

The man, Jesus, only begotten Son, lived a human life in this world, an infinitesimal speck of matter in the Universe. He lived exactly in the same way as do all of us. From conception to the tomb he is true man which is to say a true mammal, a being created out of the Eternal Glory that he loves as Son of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God has always believed in us and knows that we are capable of producing great wonders. He also knows that we are all material beings that can enjoy the delights of this world which we are ravaging more and more to produce a wealth that is leading us into deeper and deeper temptation to believe only in ourselves. 

Jesus is the perfect sinless human being that is formed to have the freedom to live and govern itself into the imitation of God that we have to be in order to complete God's vision of us. We can, all of us, complete our lives in God's Holiness but only if we accept the teaching for which the Crucifixion is only the beginning.

Dear Lord, help me to live out this day in a prayerful reality ready to do your will. Jesus walked through the dust of Palestine humbly teaching the men who could not completely understand his message until the Glory of the Resurrection overpowered all of them. Help me to remember how True God and True Man by his miraculous powers, gave us the signs pointing to the Resurrection as  the final reality of this world for us all and that all the work of preparation has already been done for us. We only have to rise above the tide of the materialism of this world, captivating as it may be, and open our hearts to the grace that flowed out of the side of Christ Crucified on Calvary. May Mary and all the saints help us all on earth to persevere in doing your "Will on earth as it is in heaven" and in Purgatory accepting the Justice of punishment, tempered with Mercy that results from our own faithlessness. Amen