Glory
May 15, 2022: A Reflection for the Fifth Sunday in Easter Time, Yr C
John 13:31-33a, 34-35
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (Jn 13:31)
Jesus, if you don’t mind my saying so, you have a very different perspective about what glory is. On this planet, we think of glory as being on top of things, at the top of my game, as they say. It is to be on a straight run of what we, your creatures, call success. Things go smoothly and according to plan, and there is no pain, suffering and all the irritatingly daily problems of life which challenge us to look inside, grow and change.
You seem to be on a completely different level when you speak of glory. There is no glitter in your version of it. But there is something so deep that it calls out to us and beckons us. It can feel like a black hole that draws us inexorably to its center and to what seems like extinction only to spit us out on the other side, transformed.
On the surface, the glory you speak of can be frightening and we run from it instead of toward it. Yet you still ask us to be willing to let the Father glorify us as he did for you.
When you speak of glory, you always speak of it in the context of the total gift of self to the Father. A gift of self that is expressed in love given freely and completely. Not just the feeling of love, but love as you lived it. The laying down of our lives for others. You speak of being glorified by the Father in one breath, and in the next, you speak of a new commandment to love one another. You equate them. Not just any kind of love, but as you have loved us.
And how did you love us? The crucifix tells it all. To look at the crucifix is to see love in glory. You love us so much that you give all for the glory of that love.
It’s hard for us little creatures to understand the fascination you have with us. But you see the glory you have placed in us, and you want more than anything else that we be in touch with that glory. You ask us to love as you did. Not only when it’s easy, but also when we are stretched and asked to let go of the things that have a stranglehold on us—behaviors, thoughts that crowd out the glory you wish to bathe us in.
We are little, yes, but you see our greatness. You have placed it in each of us. Glorify us, Jesus. And let us know the true greatness of love poured out for you and for one another.