23 August 2014
Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
“And I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of God.”
The “glory of God” is a phrase we hear – especially at Christmas – but one which seldom captures our attention. What is this glory really like? Who has ever seen it?
The prophets of Israel certainly saw it, as did the Shepherds at the birth of the Messiah. The glory which left the Temple in Jerusalem, later ruined, came to dwell in Mary, who became the new temple of God’s glory: and the Spirit of God rested upon her, and upon her Son, who, risen, is the King of Glory.
We adore Him in the Eucharist, and silently bathe in His glory. And we also encounter Him in the “distressing guise of the poor” – whose glory we will only see at the end of our earthly journey. May we serve the glorious Lord now, in the ruins of broken humanity, that ruined temple of God, so that when the Spirit of God reveals Himself to us, we may be found worthy of that Glory He wants to break forth from out the ruins.