The Eternal Weight of Glory
Genesis 3:9-15
Psalm 130
II Corinthians 4:13-5:1
St. Mark 3:20-35
This week's lections include some of my favorite texts of Scripture. Our first lesson deals with the Fall of Mankind, drawing special attention to the fact that after eating of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve's eyes were opened and they clothed themselves, having realized that they were naked. God then asks pointedly, "Who told you that you were naked?"
This text has proven confusing throughout the history of biblical interpretation. Everyone from Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon in Guide for the Perplexed to C.S. Lewis in Peralandra has wrestled with it. Why is a wisdom which seems so worthy forbidden, and why is our first reaction after gaining it to clothe ourselves? David Cotter, OSB, solves the first problem, pointing out that "good and evil" is a pair like "old and young," or "high and low," a pair of opposites that we use to indicate the extremes and everything in-between. The tree is not the knowledge of the difference between good and evil, it is meant to be "the Tree of Knowledge, good and evil," as Robert Alter translates the line.
Our catechism takes the same line, that the tree is meant to point out our limits, our creatureliness (paragraph 396). The result is that our spiritual control over our bodies is disrupted as the moral fibers holding together our right relationships are severed (paragraph 400). So corrupted, our relationships with ourselves are disturbed. Tension is introduced, naturally followed by a sense of guilt and the realization that guilt needs to be atoned, blotted out, covered.
"If you keep account of wickedness, Lord, who shall stand?" the psalmist plaintively cries in today's psalm. In Psalm 51 he asks God to "hide your face from my sin / and blot out my wickedness." This disruption requires something to blot it out of the ledger, to remove it from the sight of Justice. But our psalmist today has a promise, that the Lord is merciful, and he will redeem, that is to buy back, to ransom at a cost, Israel from all his wickedness.
Because we are always given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life might be manifested in our mortal flesh (II Cor. 4:11). And we know that he who raised Jesus will also raise us from the grave (verse 14). Having died with Christ, we will also be raised with him, having been joined to his body in death we will also be renewed with his body in the Resurrection (Rom. 6:8). The answer to the dilemma of the Garden is in Christ, in God made flesh. Because God in Christ took up our nature to ransom it, to restore it to its unity.
St. Paul goes on, saying that our flesh is wasting away, but that this present suffering is not worth comparing to the eternal weight of glory that will be revealed in us (II Cor 4:16). He answers the "opened eyes" of Adam and Eve resoundingly, because we look not to what is seen, but what is unseen, God's renewal of our souls (v. 18). So in our bodies we suffer to the point of groaning like a woman giving birth, as a preparation for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23).
The man Christ Jesus has given himself a ransom for all! (I Tim. 2:5-6) Blessed whose crime is covered, whose sin is washed away! (Ps. 32:1) Christ has incorporated us into his wholeness. It is no mere philosophizing that St. Athanasius gives us in his great creed that Christ is "one altogether," and by "assuming the manhood into God." The corruption of inward unity which caused man to cover himself is undone when every parish priest says "The Body of Christ" and we are joined to His Unity, so that in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and this corruptible will clothe itself in incorruptibility! Death is swallowed up in victory! (I Cor. 15:50-55)
Fear not the destruction of the body, because we know that if it should be destroyed we have another, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens (II Cor. 5:1). Rejoice in suffering because it is only the strengthening of your person, the reforming of your soul, to bear that eternal weight of glory. Rejoice when you struggle because it is teaching you patience and charity and the likeness of Christ. So that you will be ready when the One seated on the Throne says "Behold, I make all things new!" (Rev. 21:5)
Psalm 130
II Corinthians 4:13-5:1
St. Mark 3:20-35
This week's lections include some of my favorite texts of Scripture. Our first lesson deals with the Fall of Mankind, drawing special attention to the fact that after eating of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve's eyes were opened and they clothed themselves, having realized that they were naked. God then asks pointedly, "Who told you that you were naked?"
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| The Fall of Man Jordaens, 17th century |
Our catechism takes the same line, that the tree is meant to point out our limits, our creatureliness (paragraph 396). The result is that our spiritual control over our bodies is disrupted as the moral fibers holding together our right relationships are severed (paragraph 400). So corrupted, our relationships with ourselves are disturbed. Tension is introduced, naturally followed by a sense of guilt and the realization that guilt needs to be atoned, blotted out, covered.
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| The Repentant King David Unknown, circ. 1650 |
Because we are always given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life might be manifested in our mortal flesh (II Cor. 4:11). And we know that he who raised Jesus will also raise us from the grave (verse 14). Having died with Christ, we will also be raised with him, having been joined to his body in death we will also be renewed with his body in the Resurrection (Rom. 6:8). The answer to the dilemma of the Garden is in Christ, in God made flesh. Because God in Christ took up our nature to ransom it, to restore it to its unity.
St. Paul goes on, saying that our flesh is wasting away, but that this present suffering is not worth comparing to the eternal weight of glory that will be revealed in us (II Cor 4:16). He answers the "opened eyes" of Adam and Eve resoundingly, because we look not to what is seen, but what is unseen, God's renewal of our souls (v. 18). So in our bodies we suffer to the point of groaning like a woman giving birth, as a preparation for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23).
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) |
| The Last Judgment Fra Angelico, circa 1450 |
Fear not the destruction of the body, because we know that if it should be destroyed we have another, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens (II Cor. 5:1). Rejoice in suffering because it is only the strengthening of your person, the reforming of your soul, to bear that eternal weight of glory. Rejoice when you struggle because it is teaching you patience and charity and the likeness of Christ. So that you will be ready when the One seated on the Throne says "Behold, I make all things new!" (Rev. 21:5)
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