From the moment Mary’s lips parted and said, “yes,” to the Angel Gabriel, God’s glory was made manifest in human history. The glory of God was revealed as a pregnant Mary approached her very pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy. God’s glory was revealed by the angels to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, and later to the Magi who traveled from distant lands to worship the Messiah of all humankind. The glory of God was revealed at the baptism of Jesus by his cousin, John, in the Jordan River, on the mountain top at his Transfiguration, in his conversation with the woman at the well, and his healing of the man born blind. The glory of God was revealed as Jesus raises a very dead and decomposing Lazarus back to life. Next Sunday, Jesus will reveal God’s glory in his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, and in his passion and death on the cross. And, then, on Easter Sunday, the greatest of all manifestations of God’s glory will be in the Resurrection of Jesus. The purpose of Jesus’ life, very simply, was the revelation of God’s glory for all to see.
You and I have been baptized into Christ Jesus. You and I are the living manifestation of Jesus in our world. We have been given the same mission as Jesus, to reveal the glory of God. How well have we done this?
Jesus reveals God’s glory in the joys, the confusion, the sorrows, and the tragedies of human life. In his own human condition and in the human condition of those Jesus met and touched, God’s glory is revealed. The death of someone we love reveals our human condition at its most raw and harshest level, our emotions and spirituality stretched to its utmost.
When someone we love dies, we may find ourselves closely akin to the people in this gospel story. We may find ourselves like Martha, not understanding the death of our loved one, but believing fervently in the power of Jesus to conquer all. Or we may be like Mary, who is so distraught by the death of her brother, she locks herself away in her room to grieve in isolation. We might find ourselves like the mourners who question why Jesus could cure the man born blind, but refuse to heal his best friend, Lazarus. Or we might find ourselves like Lazarus, emotionally and spiritually dead, awaiting to be raised by Jesus. Wounded by death, left in doubt, grief, confusion, and perhaps emotionally and spiritually dead, how can we reveal the glory of God within us?
My brother, my sister, and I never knew our maternal grandparents. Both our maternal grandmother and grandfather were dead by the time my mother got married. As we got older, my mom began to tell us the stories about her mother and father while they were alive. Though mom would reference their deaths, it really wasn’t until we were much older, specifically for myself, when I was 40 years old, that she began to talk in detail about their deaths.
When my mom was 12 years old, her mother and her 5 year old little sister died within two weeks of each other. Her mother died two weeks before Christmas. My mom’s little sister died on Christmas day. Days before she died, my 12 year old mother was summoned to my grandmother’s deathbed. On her deathbed, my grandmother told my 12 year old mother, “I named you Regina when you were born. Regina is another name of our Blessed Mother. The name means “Queen.” I am going to die. I have asked our Blessed Mother to be your mother. She is your mother now. Go to her when you need her.”
At that time, when people died, their families would wake their dead loved ones in their own homes. The wakes lasted two days and two nights. I asked my mom how it felt to have her dead mother and her dead little sister waked in her home. My mom that she was kept busy cooking food for the guests who came by to pay their respects, and to clean up after the guests. She told me how great a comfort it was to have their bodies of her mother and little sister there. After all the guest left, she said that in the middle of the night she would go downstairs and sit next to the bodies of her mother and her sister. She said that the closeness of their presence felt like they were embracing her.
Where, in the midst of this horrible tragedy that befell my mother and her family, was the glory of God revealed? My dying grandmother revealed God’s glory in handing over her daughter, Regina, to the loving care of our Blessed Mother, Mary. God’s glory was revealed in all of my mother’s Irish aunts and uncles who rallied around her, her remaining brothers and sister, and, her dad. God’s glory continued to be revealed following the funerals of her mother and her sister, in all the relatives, the nuns of her parish school of St. Rosalia, Fr. Coglin, her parish priest, who supported my mom and her family from that time forward. When my grandfather died when my mom was 25 years old, Fr. Coglin took on the responsibility of watching over my mom as a surrogate father. Many a young man had to run the gauntlet of Fr. Coglin before he could date my mother. Fr. Coglin was not just going to let any man date and/or marry Queenie, as Fr. Coglin called my mother. Fortunately, my dad passed the very exacting scrutiny of Fr. Coglin and married my mother.
Baptized into Christ Jesus, we are the living manifestation of Jesus in our world. Today’s gospel reveals to us that the glory of God can be made manifest in all the conditions of our human life. Let us open our lives to God so that God’s glory may be revealed in our joys and our sorrows, in our health and in our illnesses, and in our life and in our death. Ultimately, as with Jesus, the greatness of God’s glory will be revealed for all of us to see in our Resurrection.
