Written by Sr. Rosemary, O.P.
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101519.cfm
I was struck with the many references to the word “glory” in our readings today. It’s used in our first reading when Paul is sharing that some people choose not to believe in God, even though if they just looked around, creation itself makes God known to them. He says: “For although they knew God, they did not accord him glory as God.” Then our psalm response was: “The heavens proclaim the glory of God.”
So perhaps a good question to ask ourselves today is: How often do I think about bringing glory, real glory, just glory, to God?
We weren’t created to keep God company; He is completely complete, the source of all things. And we weren’t created just to care of our earth, which, admittedly, we haven’t done such a good job at sometimes by our polluting and wasting earth’s resources. And although serving God is one of the highest values of our faith, serving is really our grateful response to God for God’s gifts to us. Our service does certainly give God glory but serving is not the fundamental purpose of why we were created.
We were created, you and I, primarily to bring glory to God. We exist to give God glory. This church exists to give God glory. The glory of God is our great gift to give. Tomorrow, in fact, we’re planning a whole day of Adoration to give glory to God. So, how do we give glory to God in our everyday lives?
The answer is in our gospel when we see that Jesus reveals that God is primarily concerned with our heart. He scolded the Pharisees: “Although you cleanse the outside of the cup, inside you are filled with plunder.” Changing the attitude of their heart, and being willing to surrender, is what Jesus was asking of them. Totally surrendered people bring glory to God.
Today is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila who is a great example of someone who gave God great glory. Many of us had the wonderful privilege in June of visiting the beautiful walled city of Avila, Spain where Fr. Walsh celebrated Mass for our group in her childhood church. Born there in 1515, she was zealous and exuberant even as a child. When she was five years old, she convinced her older brother that they should go off to the land of the Moors and beg the Moors, out of love of God, to cut off their heads to they could be martyrs. They got as far as the road from the city before an uncle found them and brought them back.
She was a character as she got older, too. As a teenager, she cared only about boys and clothes and flirting and rebelling. When she was 16, her father decided she was out of control and sent her to a convent. There, she was too charming. Everyone liked her and she liked to be liked. The convent encouraged her to have visitors to whom she would teach prayer, but Teresa got more involved in flattery, vanity and gossip than spiritual guidance. She eventually became very sick, and this sickness caused her to have a change of heart. She knew she was being called to reform the Carmelite Order, which needed it, and she set about to do it.
"May God protect me from gloomy saints," Teresa said, and that's how she ran her convent. To her, spiritual life was an attitude of love, not of rule. Although she lived poverty, she believed in work, not in begging. She believed in obedience to God more than penance. If you do something wrong, she advised not to punish yourself – change! When someone felt depressed, her advice was that they go someplace where they could see the sky and take a walk. When someone was shocked when she ate well, she answered, "There's a time for partridge and a time for penance."
She died in 1582. In 1970 she was one of the first two women to be declared a Doctor of the Church for her writing and teaching on prayer. She knew that glorifying God starts inside with surrendering our heart. In concluding, here is one of my favorite prayers of hers:
“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.’
