Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
Jesus explained that what was about to happen was in fact his glorification. He did so because when it happened it would appear to be anything but. It was a glory that Judas was unwilling to recognize, one which he thought unfitting for a messiah. It caused him to choose to leave them, to separate himself from them, a goat from the sheep.
The glory that was then beginning was the glory of Jesus' passion and of his cross. Jesus regarded the cross as his glory because by it he would reveal the degree to which he loved both the Father, and the degree to which he and the Father so loved the world. Enduring the cross for the sake of his love and trust in the Father also meant that his Father was "glorified in him" as his very life became a testimony to the goodness of the Father and his plan.
We may be tempted to think that calling the cross glory was a nice poetic device, but that the true glory came in the resurrection and ascension of the Lord. And these things, it is true, were glorious. But if the primary motivation of the incarnation was love, then that motivation was realized nowhere more perfectly than on the cross. Spiritually, what happened on the cross was in fact the most perfectly glorious moment the world had ever known. The glory of the resurrection was in fact dependent on it, and could not have availed for us without the first all surpassing act of love. Therefore Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (see Galatians 6:14). This is why the cross is more than a painful memory for believers, why we wear them, and use them to decorate our homes. It is the reason they are given pride of place in our Churches and why the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a feast on our liturgical calendars, why we sing hymns such as "Lift High the Cross".
Jesus insisted that the cross glorious because he knew it would be hard to watch, that we would be tempted to turn from it or to flee from it as did Peter. But he knew that, although difficult, it was worth watching, since seeing his glory would in turn transform us as we "with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (see Second Corinthians 3:18). Thus it was prophesied that we would, "look on me, on him whom they have pierced" (see Zechariah 12:10). It was this vision that moved the centurion and those who were with him to exclaim, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (see Matthew 27:54). If it had the power to do that to people with basically no context for what saw, imagine what it can do to us.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
The glory of the cross was such that it could not but receive a response from the Father. The unwavering love of his Son could not be ignored or trivialized. Indeed, the only possible result of the cross, from the point of view of the Father, was the resurrection, and finally the enthronement of the humanity of Jesus in heaven. Already the glory began breaking forth in the earthquake, in the darkening of the sun, in the rending of the temple veil. But it would shine forth like a new and radiant dawn on the third day.
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
The people of Israel knew that they had been commanded to love God with all of their heart, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves. But they did not know the magnitude this love was meant to have until they witnessed it demonstrated by Jesus himself. They were called to a love that surpassed human standards. If Jesus had not shown it possible, people would have dismissed it as an unrealizable abstraction. To love in this way was also to be perfect as the heavenly Father was perfect. It would indeed have been impossible had not Jesus made it possible. His disciples loving as he loved was therefore a supernatural proof of the glory of Christ who was loving within them.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
On the one hand, the fact that we don't often love each other well is a reason why the Church is not as persuasive as she might be. If we more committed to loving others as Jesus loved us there would be less conflict about politics, or philosophy, or doctrine. More people would be drawn to the beauty of goodness and the splendor of the truth. But that said, Jesus was not naive when he said this, as though it wishful thinking that would never actually be happen. The lives of holy men and women, the saints throughout the ages, have lived lives of love that marked them as disciples of the Lord. And such disciples, then and now, are among the best proofs we have that Jesus is alive and present to his Church.
Building 429 - Glory Defined
Maranatha! Music - Bless God
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