DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Luke 21:8-9, 25-27, 33-36
(3/1)
Gospel for Saturday of the Week of Meatfare
Great
Glory: St. Luke 21:8-9, 25-27, 33-36, especially vs. 27: “Then
they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory.” How often
we hear the hymn of praise offered to the Life-giving Trinity, “Glory to
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: both now and ever, and unto
ages of ages. Amen!” The hymn
is called “The Little Doxology,” from the word in the original,
“doxa,” referring to the “glory” or praise that the
hymn ascribes to the Holy Trinity.
The hymn provides a way to bring, “...unto the Lord the glory due
unto His Name...” (Ps. 28:2).
What is this “glory” we bring to the Lord? In fact, we praise that which already is
God’s nature, the “great glory” that all men shall see when
Christ returns.
Holy Scripture associates God’s “glory” with what
Orthodox Christians call a “theophany,” an appearance of God. Theophany literally means “a
giving or bringing of God’s light.” In a theophany, God discloses not His
essence but His energies coming from His essence - light, love, power, and
truth. Hence, in theophanies, we
men do not see God directly, as God teaches us: “...for no man shall see
My face, and live” (Ex. 33:20).
Man, the creature, and God, the Creator, are absolutely incomparable:
“For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor are my ways as your ways,
saith the Lord. But as the heaven
is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts
from my mind” (Is. 55:8-9).
Theophanies typically are associated with cloud, fire, light, and voice
- forms spoken of as “the glory of the Lord” (Nu. 16:19). However, even the power and the majesty
of God’s energies, being pure forms as Holy Scripture shows, invariably
overwhelm those to whom they are granted in theophanies (Deut. 5:23-27, Acts
22:9-11). Therefore, God
“modulates” His appearances to men, that His creatures may receive
them. This means that the
“glory” of God that men see is limited by what impure human hearts,
minds, and eyes can tolerate.
In the book of Exodus, theophanies occur repeatedly for the people of
Theophanies take ordinary men far beyond their spiritual depth:
“And now let us not die, for this great fire will consume us, if we shall
hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, and we shall die. For what flesh is there which has heard
the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have
heard, and shall live?” (Deut. 5:25-26). When the Lord revealed His glory on
Invariably, when God imparts a message, He reveals His glory, and often
what He communicates concerns both His judgment and His salvation. Hence, in this gospel passage, when the
Lord Jesus speaks of His return, He announces that the Son of Man will come
“with power and great glory....Heaven and earth will pass away...”
(Lk. 21:27,33). While it is a
warning, it is not without hope: “Watch, therefore, and pray always that
you may be counted worthy to escape all these things...and to stand before the
Son of Man” (vs. 36); for the Lord’s final, great theophany will
come as a snare “...on all those who dwell on the face of the whole
earth” (vs. 35).
As I remember the terrible Day of Judgment, and Thy dark, ineffable glory, I tremble altogether, O Dread Lord, crying to Thee in fear, O Christ God, deliver me from all punishments, and make me worthy to sit at Thy right hand, O Master.[1]