The Glory of God

 

God alone is deserving of all glory because of who he is. God is the I am, the beginning without beginning and the end without end.  He is unconditional Love personified. He is uncreated Spirit, who was and who is and who will be. He is all wise and all knowing. He is all perfect without limitations and omnipotent. He is all holy. God is the embodiment of all truth, of all life, goodness and beauty. Pope Saint John Paul II said: “The glory of God is first of all in himself. It is the ‘interior glory.’”

 

Words can never fully express the totality of the Godhead, nor fully comprehend this mystery. All we can do is respond to it.  With the angels we cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) Inadequate and imperfect as we are, we are moved to join in the hymn of the heavenly assembly as they cry out: “Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and strength to our God, forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 7:12). Or we can proclaim: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever Amen”. Even this falls short of the reality of who God is.