Posted on 04/15/2025 8:40:42 AM PDT by fidelis
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once.” John 13:31–32
Jesus speaks this line about Himself being glorified immediately after Judas leaves the supper to go forth to betray Him. Jesus had just finished washing the feet of His disciples, and soon He would finish the Last Supper, go to the Garden of Gethsemane, be arrested, beaten and crucified. And this was to all take place through the betrayal of one of the Twelve. Yet rather than speak of these pending events in a fearful or anxious way, Jesus points to the glory He will receive through them.
Everything in life has the potential to become an instrument of the glory of God. Even our sin can end in God’s glory when we repent and receive God’s forgiveness. It will not be our sin that glorifies God but His mercy poured forth from the Cross upon us that gives Him glory.
The same is true with the events of Holy Week. When looked at from a purely human perspective, what Jesus endured was tragic and horrific. One of His closest companions betrayed Him. The religious leaders of the time betrayed Him. The civil authorities betrayed Him. And all of the disciples except John fled in fear as Jesus was betrayed. But Jesus did not look at any of this through human eyes alone. He saw it all from the eternal perspective and clearly taught that all of these seemingly tragic events would end in His glory.
When we commit ourselves to the following of Christ, we can be assured that we will also share in His Cross. We will experience the sins of others, encounter mistreatment, and have to endure various sufferings. The question for us all as we have these encounters in life is whether we will endure them in anger and despair or with the hopeful confidence of our Lord. Again, everything in life has the potential to become an instrument of the glory of God. Nothing in life has the power to steal away that glory when we keep our eyes upon the will of God and His power to use all for His glory.
Reflect, today, upon your call in life to see everything from the divine perspective. If you are upset, angry, despairing or confused at times, know that God wants to bring clarity and grace to every situation. He wants to show you how you can share in His divine mission of transforming every evil into God’s glory. Seek out the ways that your life must give glory to God in everything, especially those things that seem incapable of being used for good. The more an experience in life seems incapable of being used for God’s glory, the more that experience is capable of giving true glory to God.
My glorious Lord, You brought forth good from all things. Even the grave evil of Your betrayal was transformed into a manifestation of Your glory. I offer to You, dear Lord, all that I endure in life and pray that You will be glorified in all things, and that my life will continually become a manifestation of the glory due Your holy name. Jesus, I trust in You.
Please keep in mind that this is a Catholic Caucus/Devotional thread for the purpose of prayerful reflection on the Sacred Scriptures and is closed to debate of any kind. Per FR policy on Religion Caucus threads, off-topic, argumentative, and abusive comments are not allowed and will be submitted to the Mods for deletion. Thanks, and God bless you.
April is the month dedicated to devotion to the Blessed Sacrament:
“ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my
blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live
because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the
fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”
(John 6:53-58)
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