Glorified humanity

Last year the Lord revealed something to me that changed me: Jesus didn’t “deign” to come and serve us, becoming different than His glory. His glory was best expressed as self-giving love.

God’s kingdom is low. This is the full expression of it. This is the glory and the life. It is not that glory is in some higher loftier place removed from us. We don’t “deign” to pick up our cross so that later we can be get rid of that and be heavenly light bulbs. Heaven is referred to as above because God is so much better than anything in the world.  But it’s too bad that we think of heaven as up and hell as down. Heaven is actually low. And it is hell that exalts itself. An understanding of the Church as abiding in God’s glory can be thought of then as the Church now living into the love of the Sacrificed One.

The goal of Jesus’ teachings, therefore, are not to help us achieve a morally heroic character. As Charles Matthewes in The Republic of Grace says:

“Martyrs and saints are not heroic; they are for the people, not for themselves. They do not stand out from us; they are for us, as our teachers. In fact, they are teachers in the sense of showing us the way we must follow…this tradition places a premium on one’s openness and frankness as regards one’s own weaknesses—it is publicity of our frailty. Also, publicity, outwardness, paradoxically helps us in our inwardness as well—by exhibiting our faults to others, it is harder for us to hide them from ourselves” (p. 42).

The greatest among us are the greatest lovers of others. The apostle Paul counsels us with such advice as “associate with the lowly” and “on those members of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor” for a reason (Rom 12:16 and 1 Cor 12:23).  It isn’t for their good—it’s for ours.  The servants are the greatest around us. As Dr. Kalas reminded us on Sunday of Mother Theresa’s saying: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”

This great love then results in great joy, as a philosopher has said:

For love to exist, I must grasp the beloved person as lovable, as glowing with a preciousness that already belongs to her, independent of any needs or desires of mine. I grasp that the loved one is a “value” — something “good” in herself. I discover this value, respond to it, am grateful for the encounter….I do not love the other as a “means” to a desired end — my happiness. Rather, I approach the other for her own sake; I am drawn toward her by her lovability. I forget myself and all my needs and desires. And — blessed paradox of life and the Gospel! – I am “surprised by joy”. I had “surrendered” to the precious one, loved her because she is lovable. I had forgotten myself and my needs. I did not begin to love “in order to be happy”. Rather, my love is a response to the lovable person who has come into my life. Joy — and laughter and sunshine — are the “fruits” of the (response to her value), but never the “intended ends”. 

In sum, Lent is not an abasing of ourselves so that we can be some day be lifted up.  The means and ends are not separated. Lent helps us to realize that we are forsaking ourselves and entering into, by the Holy Spirit, a joy-filled heavenly life that is seen in Christ’s love for others in mercy, meekness, and self-donation for them. As we live into Lenten practices we can more fully live with the One who died for us out of love.