Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine,
by the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschl says of Glory:

And this is how the glory was revealed. Moses stood alone on the top of the mount, the glory passed by, “the Lord descended in the cloud,” and the great answer was revealed: The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto to the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7)

The glory is the presence, not the essence of God; an act rather than a quality; a process, not a substance. Mainly the glory manifests itself as a power overwhelming the world. Demanding homage, it is a power that descends to guide, to remind. The glory reflects abundance of good and truth, the power that acts in nature and history.

The whole earth is full of his glory. It does not mean that the glory fills the earth in the way in which the ether fills space or water fills the ocean. It means that the whole earth is full of His presence.  (God in Search of Man, page 82, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955)

Before I reflect as a Christian on glory, I want to state that I regard Rabbi Heschl with great reverence, and I am in awe of his insight. His books, The Sabbath and The Prophets are two of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read, and I heartily recommend them to anyone.

With Heschl’s understanding of glory we also understand that Creation, the Jewish people and the Church reflect the glory of God.

Standing in a sunbeam in a sunlit church, I showed a group of children a small, square mirror. I asked them, “What shape will the mirror’s reflection of the sun take on that distant wall?”

Because the mirror was square they guessed “square!”

Wrong. It was round like the sun. (Try it sometime!) Regardless of a mirror’s shape, beyond a certain distance it will reflect the shape of the light source.

My point: The small mirror with its peculiar shape reflects perfectly the enormous ball of the sun, as you and I, odd though we are, reflect the beauty and glory of God.

We shine as God’s presence in our world, reflecting God’s abundance of good and truth. Those who see our acts of generosity, kindness and courage see God’s glory.