Easter Sunday 5, C May 15, 2022
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” This is during the last supper. Jesus has just washed their feet and announced that one of them will betray him. After everyone denies it, Jesus tells Judas “what you’re going to do, do quickly.” Betrayal prompts Jesus to speak of glory.
What do you think of when you hear glory? What does it mean to “glorify” something or someone? For Jesus Christ, glory may not be what we expect. Just as Jesus links Judas’ betrayal to glory, so do the first two readings link glory to something… unpleasant.
Paul in the Acts of the apostles tries to encourage the disciples by saying “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” The Book of Revelation speaks of wiping away tears and of making all things new, but where did those tears come from? This is chapter 21 of that book. The last 15 chapters were chock full of famine, disease, war, and cosmic disaster. Vast swaths of humanity are suffering and dying. The beast and the harlot and the false prophets are given free reign… The reason Revelation speaks of a new heaven and a new earth are because this one gets pretty thoroughly torn up.
This kind of glory is not what the world understands as glory. In the Gospel of John, when he talks about Jesus’ glorification, he is always talking about the Crucifixion. In the grand scheme of things, it is precisely through suffering that we see victory and glory. Why?
Because of love. “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” In order for any of that to make sense, there are two crucial things we have to keep in mind: Original Sin and Authentic Love. This world is fallen. I’m convinced that a very large percentage of Christians don’t quite get what that means. Sure, people will acknowledge Adam and Eve messed up, but they don’t seem to take seriously what that means for the world. It means this world is broken. It means everything about this world has something missing, twisted, or dangerous.
Not to get carried away: the world is still fundamentally good, but it is always an incomplete good, distorted. There is no escaping it. The fundamental laws of the universe – written by God – are always filtered through the distorting effect of Original Sin. It means we can’t be naïve in assuming that what we see about the world is how it’s meant to be. It means we should have a basic suspicion of our own motivations and that we should be wary of trusting too much in what we can figure out. Science, philosophy, politics – all of these are scarred by this fallenness. This means it is easy to be quite mistaken about what is truly good.
Which brings us to the authentic meaning of love: it is to will the good of the other. It is to choose to act for what it truly best for another person. And because we are limited in our ability to know what is best for another person, loving and being loved can be… painful – the horrendous things depicted in the book of Revelation are a result of God’s love. Yet, only through the anguish of misunderstood love do we come to genuine understanding and authentic love. Just think about the times you’ve most grown in your ability to love – how often did you fully understand before you suffered? Parents, how much suffering did that first baby cause? Did your love increase or decrease?
So, what do we do? First, you have to want the truth… to truly want what is good. For all their limitations, science, philosophy, and politics are rooted in a search for the truth, a desire for a good life. That desire is good… it should be cultivated. But that brings us to the second thing: humility. Being too self-assured or comfortable in your search for truth and goodness is guaranteed to miss. The more we rely on our own understanding… the more we forget about the distorting influence of Original Sin, the more our efforts will build up a false world… a false solution to the desire for truth and goodness, a false contentment.
But God’s love does not stop. God is love. So when He enters into the false world we’ve built, it cannot help but be destroyed. And God’s efforts are not poisoned by original sin. We turn to power, conquest, or manipulation to solve problems… but not Him. Truth, Love, Glory – God simply is these things. He allows the false world to smash itself to pieces against him. He is the rock. Our sins and false ideas are like a toy bat dashed to pieces against him.
This is why Judas’ betrayal brings glory; not because lying and murder are good, but because all the lies and murder in the world still fail when they hit the rock of God’s truth and love. The crucifixion is letting the false world strike, the resurrection is proof that the blow only undoes the one who strikes. God’s offensive strategy is to put himself in the way of falsehood so it breaks against him. So the Book of Revelation tells us that “God’s dwelling is with the human race.” So we learn humility; to seek the truth not just through our own reason and study, but through the gift of God’s revelation, through faith greater than reason.
And when our sins and lies are broken against his solid love, we are made like him – stones beside the cornerstone, bricks on the foundation, pointing us to the third thing: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love that desires what is best for one another. And what is best for each person? Salvation. How is it shown? Not just doing nice things, just acting good, but, like Jesus, suffering the evils of another long enough for that evil to break against the rock of God’s love… of the love of God in you.
To make it practical: do you really want all other people to go to heaven? Black, white, immigrant legal or not? LGBT? Your ex? Your boss? The one who hurt you? Do you love them? Do you work to get them to heaven? Pray for them? Suffer for them? Because Jesus did and if you want to be a disciple, then you must love as Jesus loved.
Seek the truth. Strive for what is good. Original sin means our efforts are faulty and the world is broken, so we will suffer when love and brokenness meet. Let that trial inspire humility to keep after truth and goodness, but relying on God rather than self. And throughout it all, be willing to suffer for love. Because that’s what glory looks like in this world: love attacked, yet unharmed, love that is killed yet remains alive.