Let Them See the Glory!

A Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2023:

One of my favorite lines of scripture is contained in the writings of St. Paul. It is his shocking, and yet strangely ignored words: “And we with unveiled face are being transformed from Glory into Glory.” Those are shocking words because they are so fundamentally true of each and ever one of us. They are strangely ignored because how often do we see that glory on another’s face or allow them to see that glory in our faces? God will never run short on glory. But do people see it in the faces of us Christians?

When the Risen Jesus encountered our two friends on the Road to Emmaus we are told that the two disciples: “stood still and looked sad.” Unfortunately that is also an apt description of most Christian disciples today: Stuck and Despairing!

The wonderful Greek word the evangelist Luke employs here is skuthropoi, meaning “with darkened mien” or “downcast visage.” But can we really blame them? They are going home… going backwards to a familiar once safe environment, at least that’s how they remember it now, because they have witnessed the brutality of human violence, the injustice of scapegoating to protect illusions of power, and the quick whiplash turn of face by a crowd once rejoicing and now calling for blood. And above all else, they just watched someone they love shamed, killed, and crushed under the heavy weight of some rock-hard notion of orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

But Luke brilliantly reminds our two friends, as well as each of us, no matter how justified we may feel in our own “standing still (or even going backwards) and looking sad,” the Christian disciple can never remain stuck there because the Risen Christ is constantly whispering in our ears: “Death is no more! So lift up your face. Let them see the Glory!”

There are simply too many Skuthropoi among Christians today. And the hurt of the world, the injustice of the world, the inhumane brutality of our world today may convince us we are more than justified in standing still and looking sad. But the Resurrection reminds us: the hurt is real, but we’ve got to let them see the Glory. The injustice is real, but we’ve got to let them see the Glory. The inhumanity is real, but we’ve got to let them see the Glory. The Risen Jesus walks beside each of us daily reminding us to “Look up” because the only remedy to the wreck of this world is to let others see the Glory reflected on our own faces.

We could consider these 50 days of Easter as our “School of Glory.” Resurrection is Relentless. We have to remember that: Resurrection, by its very nature, is Relentless. There is no brutality, injustice or inhumanity that can undo the effects of the Risen Christ. And we either choose to live in that relentlessness of resurrection, even if it frightens us, or we choose to stand still, or worse go backwards, and looking sad, hide our own transformation from Glory into Glory.

The Emmaus Disciples were making a justifiable, but very dangerous journey. They were treading that too-well worn path toward a life of cynicism, fear, despair and resentment. They were treading toward a life now lived in loss alone… dead men long before death would ever overtake them. Just two more downcast and saddened faces in a world weighed down by Skuthropoi!

But Resurrection has to matter! The Relentlessness of Resurrection has to matter! We must not push it off as a some day later kind of thing! Resurrection is for us a daily event. And the transformation of our faces from Glory into Glory cannot be undone!

So if you want to counter the cynical: Let them see the Glory! If you want to counter the inhumane: Let them see the Glory! If you want to counter the unjust: Let them see the Glory. If you want to counter the sad, the fearful, the rigid: Let them see the Glory! Don’t stand still and look sad, or worse yet buy into some illusion that you can return to some mythical time when it was all better.

Instead, let us tread the path of hope, the path marked out by the relentless resurrection life of Jesus Christ, who walks beside us daily, unfailingly, and says to us: Lift up your face! Let them see the Glory!