Along the Path: A Glorious Day!
As I was entering the church the other morning, I met an older member of the parish. She was all excited to tell me about her granddaughter who had been married the Saturday before at the church and how it had been “A Glorious day!”
“Glorious” is a word that we would not normally use to describe events experienced on a purely human level. It is rather a word that we use to describe encounters with God and experiences of the divine present in the ordinary events of our lives, and in the world around us.
For example, we might we proclaim “a Glorious sunrise”, the majestic view at the top of the mountains as “Glorious”; a “Glorious” experience we have never had before; the “Glorious” experience of falling in love, or being present at the “Glorious” birth of a new child into our lives. For each of these human experiences to be “Glorious”, there needs to be the added dimension of the presence of God being involved.
“Glorious” is an unusual word. It is one of those words that helps us describe an experience that we cannot describe fully with just words, but mutual experiences make clear what is meant. Anyone who shares the experience of God’s presence understands what “Glorious” means.
Like the word “Love”. There are so many different forms and experiences of love and yet in our shared experiences of “Love”, we understand what is being expressed.
Back to my encounter with the grandmother outside the church, it was quickly obvious to me that her focus of the cause of the day being so “Glorious”. It was not so much the beauty of the bride and groom or the people at the reception. It was rather the shared experience of the presence and love of God that made the event “Glorious” for her. What transpired at the church service was that the two had presented themselves before the Lord to surrender their love for each other into the arms of the greater love of God. They did so desiring that their human love would become “Glorious”, as it took on this added dimension of God’s love.
Not only were bride and groom blessed with the “Glory” of the presence of God, but all present who were open to the presence of God in their own lives, identified and experienced the “Glory” as well.
What a wonderful God we have that desires that every aspect of our lives be filled with divine “Glory”. This “Glory” brings with it a joy that, like the grandmother describing the wedding, could only be best expressed by her spontaneously exclaiming that it was “A Glorious Day!”
Each day of our lives can be “Glorious”. The experience does not need to be limited to just special occasions. It is so sad that so many miss out in knowing this joy by limiting their experiences of life to only that of this earthly realm. God has a whole other realm of life to offer!
In houses of worship this weekend we will sing and proclaim “Glory to God on the highest!” Come and join us! This “Glorious” God is with us and wants to make every day for us truly, “A Glorious Day!”
God bless you all!
Fr. Mike McNamara has been a priest for over 40 years in the Archdiocese of Boston and is founder and director of Servants of Christ Ministries, in Scituate, a ministry of evangelization and healing. He is also part-time Parochial Vicar of the Hingham Collaborative Parishes of St. Paul and Resurrection. The Along the Path column is shared among the clergy of Scituate.