More of the crucial glory

 "'In the Cross of Christ I Glory,' declared  the nineteenth century hymn writer John Browning. It seems a strange, even bizarre, glory. "We have beheld his glory," St. John wrote, meaning that he was there, with Mary, beholding the final and perfect sacrifice. In the churches of Asia Minor that were founded by John, Easter was celebrated not on Sunday, as with other churches, but on 14 Nisan, the anniversary of Christ's death. This was his 'hour' of glory. The resurrection ratified and reinforced what was already displayed on the cross. When John, therefore, places Mary at the cross, he is placing her at the very center of salvation. She was there with him, beholding a glory different from, even the opposite of, everything ordinarily meant by glory. It was God's glory, which is love." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

For me and for Fr. Neuhaus, this passage is a continuation of the one I began to reflect on the other day and subjugated the the Holy Father's prayer agenda. This thought process reinforces my prior thoughts about what Jesus himself meant whenever he referred to being glorified, and how we ourselves tend to view pain as something to avoid rather than embrace as an act of love when God reveals it as his plan for our lives. (I'm sure I have shared some related ideas about how husbands are called to love their wives, too.)

I love how Fr. Neuhaus has tied Jesus's sacrifice for us to the fullest possible expression of God's love. Maybe more than anything else, this is why it is so important to spend time reflecting on Good Friday. We prefer to rejoice in the resurrection, and perhaps we should. But the victory that the resurrection expresses was won on Calvary. How apt that St. John insisted on celebrating Easter on the anniversary of that date.

I will, however, make this objection to Fr. Neuhaus's thoughts: it wasn't John who placed Mary at the cross. It was Mary's devoted love for her son that caused her to be there, in the grace bestowed on her that led to her initial and ongoing fiat. 

We never know where our fiat, our availability, will take us, either, but it will be glorious, and perhaps strangely so.

The glory of the cross

 "Exploration into God is exploration into darkness, into the heart of darkness. Yes, to be sure, God is light. He is the light by which all light is light. In the words of the psalm, "In your light we see light." Yet great mystics of the Christian tradition speak of the darkness in which the light is known, a darkness inextricably connected to the cross. At the heart of darkness, the light of the world is dying on a cross, and the longest stride of soul is to see in this a strange glory . . . . The cross is not the eclipse of that glory but its shining forth, its epiphany." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

Hard to believe I started this post five days ago, immediately after finishing my last one. I've read more since then, just haven't blogged more. 

My agenda this morning would be to finish this post right now, and move on to the dream that I had about the importance of subjugating our agendas to God's will so we can receive the gifts he greatly desires for us. Instead I am going to come back to these thoughts later, and this morning join in a global novena for peace. I think I'm going to find that the two things are related.

A different type of flower

 "Availability is letting God have his way, even when it leads us to the cross. For those who are available, life is at God's disposal, kept in readiness for what he may be up to." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

I've included the first part of this quotation in a post before, but again, I have a different perspective in mind now than what I did before. 

I'm amazed at how much of our lives, of our availability, we waste by having our eyes fixed on our own goals, our own agenda, our own ideas about life. We are, each one of us, called to serve God where we are, in the current circumstances of our lives. Yet we spend so much energy on trying to work toward the goals and dreams we have for our lives.

Not that I'm discarding the value of goals and dreams. Without them, we can let inertia keep us stuck where we are. But sometimes we focus on our plans, our ideas, and our vision, even when we don't have any way to bring those to fruition. We let what we want in life drive our attention and actions--or our frustrated inactivity--to the point that we miss the wonderful chances to serve God and the people he loves where we are right now. 

But when we make ourselves available to God now, we often find that he has something in mind for us that is far different from our dreams and desires. There's an old country song about overlooking an orchid while searching for a rose, and our lives can become like that. There is incredible wonder that God wants to work through us, and he just wants us to be available so he can pour out his blessings in and through our lives. Instead, we keep beating our heads against a closed door rather than finding the one that God is holding open for us.