One of the most important (and too often overlooked) themes of Scripture is the tremendous, indescribable glory of God. The biblical Hebrew word for glory, kavod, implies something of great weight, honor, and significance. Our childhood faith formation these days correctly emphasizes the love and mercy of the Lord, but such tenderness is noteworthy only if we also know God's awesome raw power: The gentleness of a one-pound kitten is barely worth mentioning, but the gentleness of a 500-pound lion would be “good news” indeed.
As Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai, he asked the Lord, “Please let me see your glory!” (Exodus 33:18) The Almighty responded:
I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name, “LORD,” before you; I who show favor to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will. But you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live. (Exodus 33:19-20)
For Moses' own safety, God had to shield Moses from his divine glory as he passed by (Exodus 33:23). When Moses later came down from the mountain after being so near to God, the other Israelites were frightened to see that his face had become “radiant” (Exodus 34:30). Moses began thus veiling his face whenever he had been in the Lord's presence.
At God's instruction, Moses later built the tabernacle, a tent in which the Lord would dwell among his people in the desert. The glory of God then settled in the tabernacle in a great fiery cloud, so that even Moses himself was unable to enter (Exodus 40:35).
Several centuries later, after the Israelites had established Jerusalem as the capital of their kingdom, the tabernacle was replaced by Solomon's temple. When the Temple had been dedicated, “the cloud filled the house of the LORD so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11). One of the unmistakable themes of the Old Testament is that God's glory is far too great for us to endure in our fallen state.
What we can easily fail to appreciate in the New Testament, though, is that the same divine glory is now contained in the person of Jesus himself. The Gospel of John announces, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God himself has “made his dwelling” - the Greek verb here literally means to set up a tabernacle or tent - among us in Jesus. The unapproachable glory of the Lord approached us, veiled in the flesh of Christ. By his death and Resurrection, the humanity of Jesus itself was “glorified,” transformed to share completely in the glory of the Lord (see CCC 645, 646, 659, 663). Because Christ's divinized human nature now transcends even space and time and “belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm” (CCC 645), Jesus ascended to the Father's right hand in a “cloud” (Acts 1:9) - reminiscent of the fiery cloud of God's glory that filled the tabernacle and temple. Now from heaven Jesus strives to draw all of us to himself (John 12:32), so that even we ourselves with our sins forgiven might share his glory through grace in the kingdom of God.
Although Jesus has ascended into heaven, he makes himself present under the appearance of bread and wine - with every trace of his divine glory - in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. Our Catholic customs reflect this reality: We refer to the box-like vessel that holds the Eucharist as the “tabernacle,” we genuflect in worship whenever we approach the tabernacle, and we learn from a young age (or are supposed to learn from a young age) that we shouldn't receive Holy Communion if we are in a state of mortal sin. We even spend time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with the Eucharist displayed in a special vessel known as a “monstrance.”
I know I've gotten a bit theological, but here's the practical connection I'd like to make - You and I ought to approach Jesus in the Eucharist with a deep sense of awe, wonder, and reverence. St. Ephrem the Syrian, a fourth-century Syrian poet and theologian, wrote of the Eucharist, “He who eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit” (Sermo IV in Hebdomadam Sanctam: CSCO 413/Syr. 182, 55). The fifth-century bishop St. Augustine said, “No one eats that flesh unless he shall first have adored... We do not sin in adoring it, but sin in not adoring it” (In Ps. xcviii. n. 9). I cannot help but think of the powerful command of the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews:
Therefore, we who are receiving the unshakable kingdom should have gratitude, with which we should offer worship pleasing to God in reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.
For readers here at St. Aloysius Church, I'd like to offer some upcoming opportunities to grow in reverent Adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament:
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