A Praise of God’s Glory

A Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

The world is more than happy to step in and tell you who you are; define you by it’s own limited vision. Your parents, partners and friends, your employers, your coworkers, your teachers and mentors. And some of what they say will hit the target but much of it will land wide of the mark. The essence of each human person is one and the same, though lived out radically and uniquely by each individual. Each of us exists primarily as a “Praise of God’s Glory!” And all we have to do to live that out is follow Jesus’ command in our gospel today: “Be Opened!”

Our first reading this Sunday from Isaiah serves as a reminder to us of God’s relentless desire, his laser-focused desire, on each one of us seeking to propel us into ever deeper life and freedom. One scripture scholar tells us that if you were to read the entire bible from Genesis to Revelation you would discover that God has two fundamental desires for each and every human being: More Freedom and More Life! From God’s perspective we can never have too much of either.

But as our second reading from the Letter of James reminds us, we human beings like to make distinctions; limiting, categorizing, cornering and containing, both life and freedom for ourselves and for others. And in limiting God’s twofold gift of life and freedom we limit our human potential and especially our potential to live as a Praise of His Glory!

Think about that a bit. You and I, at the very heart of who we are, with our frailties, our fumbling, and our failures are created as a Praise of God’s Glory. You are, by your very existence, an act of praise. When God created you and me he took such delight in each one of us that our entire lives play out as a constant echo of that delight which manifests itself as praise!

And we can only live into that existential call when we allow ourselves to “Be Opened!” by Christ’s own creative and healing power. Something in us, like a horse at the starting gate, wants to surge forward and run with reckless abandon. But that surging life energy can be unnerving: Where will it take us? So we, without thinking, automatically move to tamp it down, limit its force, place parameters around our lives and circumscribe our freedom and that of others. Now, to an extent, that is wise because the life and freedom God wants for us is beyond us and we can easily abuse or misuse it. So some parameters are needed, but we tend to over limit and over circumscribe and end up living only in the shadows of the kind of life and freedom God desires for us.

So here we have to heed Christ’s command in our gospel today: “Be Opened!” Be opened and let him lead us into the kind of healing and hope that will allow us to risk living more fully into the freedom and life that God placed within us when his delight coursed through our very creation and brought us fully alive!

St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, writes the following: “[We are all called] to live for the praise of God’s glory.” We are all called to live as a praise of God’s glory. That’s who you are. That’s who I am. No matter the current circumstances of our lives; what we struggle with, what we are ashamed of, our doubts and fears. All of that perhaps real to an extent but NONE of that, absolutely NONE of that, can ever touch who we are at heart.

Between the light and dark passages of our lives we exist as a Praise of God’s Glory and the light and the darkness, as they collide in our lives, only serve to fulfill God’s purpose for each of us… More Life! More Freedom!

Let us pray in our Eucharist today that we might “Be Opened” to the truth of who we are: A Praise of God’s Glory. So as we live it out more fully each day others too might discover that truth in themselves. And a world weary with limits, loss, and loneliness will awaken anew!