THE GLORY AND ABASEMENT OF THE WORD

MONDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Ezek 1:2-5,24-28; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Mt 17:22-27

The lowliness of the Son of Man

The two readings today create a sharp contrast with their contents. The prophet Ezekiel sees the vision of the One that looks like a man, the Most High, whose throne is on the winged creatures, surrounded with glory; the Son of Man prophesies about the death he was to die in the hands of men. The human person is at the centre of the two narratives. Ezekiel narrates the glory of the Eternal Word, who before his incarnation was like man, for man was made in his image and being made in his likeness. The prophet was privileged to witness the glory of the Eternal Word of the Father, who reveals the Father to us. “I saw him shine like bronze, and close to and all around him from what seemed his loins upwards was what looked like fire, and from what seemed his loins downwards I saw what looked like fire, and a light all round like a bow in the clouds on rainy days; that is how the surrounding light appeared. It was something that looked like the glory of the Lord.” He was shown the glory of the Lord in a way that he could understand, for the full glory of the Eternal Word is indescribable. This glory is behind the materiality of creatures. We can only penetrate this material shield with a spiritual eye made possible by the Father’s gift of faith by which we possess a spiritual life.

Without this gift of faith, it is impossible to catch a glimpse of the spiritual, not to talk of participation in the spiritual life. The Father gave the prophet Ezekiel the gift of this vision in which he witnessed the presence of the Eternal Word who decreed the exile of children of Israel. He saw the great glory veiled in our daily struggles and travails but never absent from his creatures. With faith, we can gaze and contemplate the glory of the Lord even in the darkest moments of our lives. Faith enables us to join the hosts of heaven in praising the glory of the Lord every day, as the Psalmist invites us to do. “Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host. All earth’s kings and peoples, earth’s princes and rulers, young men and maidens, old men together with children.” The whole creation praises the glory of God and obeys his will in all things. But the fallen human nature makes it difficult to behold God’s glory in creation. Hence, the faithful are the ones who attend to the invitation to praise God. Faith enables us to eat the heavenly bread that the Eternal Word gives us from the Father daily. But for the sake of our fallen nature, the infinite mercy of the Father has also sent his Son in human nature to rescue us from sin and death.

This is the prophecy Our Lord gave his disciples when they were together in Galilee. “One day when they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men; they will put him to death, and on the third day he will be raised to life again.’ And a great sadness came over them.” Our blindness to the ever-present glory of God was the source of their sadness and ours whenever we hear of physical loss or evil. This great sadness diminishes with the coming of faith and spiritual life in us. But insofar as we are in this mortal tent, the sadness will never go away completely unless aided by grace to enter a habitual possession of God’s glory within our senses. This happens for most souls at their departure from this mortal tent. Through prayer, we can enter and participate in the glory of the Lord while still in exile from our heavenly home. While in this land of exile, we are treated like strangers as they treated the Lord in the gospel passage. “Then they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel came to Peter and said, ‘Does your master not pay the half-shekel?’ ‘Oh yes’ he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, ‘Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do the kings of the earth take a toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?’” We pay our toll in our fallen nature because we live now away from our glorious home. Let the toll we pay in this fallen nature not make us forget the glory that surrounds us as children of God and awaits us in heaven.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to learn from the Holy Spirit to call You Father and truly live as your children, though we are unworthy of such a gift, bring the perfection of this gift in our hearts, and make us worthy to enter the inheritance you have promised us in heaven.