Trinity 4 – True Glory

Romans 8.18-23       St Luke 6.36-42

I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed in us. 
[KJV Rom 8:20]

We are invited this Trinity season to a great banquet offered by our Lord.  We are to heed this invitation and the promised feast will include deep communion with God and with our fellow human beings.  It will meet our deepest needs.  The feast is open to the maimed, the blind and the paralysed.  In other words, we needn’t be perfect to attend the feast.  However, we will enjoy the feast more fully, we will have deeper communion with God and our neighbour, as we are transformed.  All the passions of our soul that lead us astray are to be, by grace, re-formed into the likeness of Christ.

Last week, we looked at the foremost passion, pride, a sheep that walks away from God.  That is us when we sin.  To return to God, we must be humbled by Him, woken up to our situation of lostness by divine Light, by His grace, brought back on his shoulders, to the party, and there is more joy in heaven.  And, once found, we are called to actively humble ourselves before God, in regular prayer, and in the act of seeking out other lost souls, in a Christlike way, to draw them back to the fold.  The result of the call of Jesus is a call to greatness of soul, to become like Him.

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This morning, we look at another passion of the soul, vainglory.

What is vainglory?

It includes a desire to exalt ourselves above others and it includes worldly ways of thinking about what is most important.  Vainglory is a confusion about how to satisfy our desire for greatness, for glory.  Whereas pride is about placing ourselves above God in heaven, vainglory is about placing ourselves above others on earth.

When we are found by God and experience conversion to Him, we gain new spiritual insight, we see more clearly what is right and what is wrong.  But what do we do with that insight?  For an immature Christian, vainglory can show itself in a particular way: in a spirit of judgement and of condemnation, of all too quickly pointing out the faults of others.  Vainglory is using our new spiritual knowledge to exalt ourselves over others.

We’re looking at what can happen, even when we are now in the Church, under God – as we join in this fellowship.  There is no doubt that in that fellowship, the Church founded by Jesus, we will find sinners, and we will see their sin clear as day.  And yet how do we approach it in others?

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye’, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.”

When children see some fault or some lesser gift in another, “you are small” or “you are not so beautiful” in some way, they can easily pick at that other child, to try to lift themselves over the other child among their peers.  Children can be really hurt by others, even bullied.  And yet it happens also among adults, trying to exalt themselves over another.  Vainglory is connected with envy, which is to hate the good of another, and to seek to tear the other person down as a way to exalt ourselves in the eyes of others.

We have a desire to lift ourselves over others, to be greater, and it is manifested in all sorts of vain ways.  We seek this vainglory maybe as a way to undo some of the hurt we have felt from others in the past.  What is our motivation in the purchases we make, in the entertainments we pursue, in the work we do?  And even as we do good things with the right motive, vainglory can slip in.  In the Newsletter last week I included a quotation from Gregory the Great, a confession that in his great work, the Moralia, which is about the reform of the soul, he felt as it was completed, the slipping in of impure motivation, the praise of men, and asked for our tears for him to wash away his guilt.

In the Gospel today Jesus is speaking of our relations within the Church because he uses the term “brother”, which implies a member of the church family.

Why is it so wrong to point out a fault of another?  Well, actually, Jesus says there is a place for pointing out failures in another – he concludes the Gospel by saying, “then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

So Jesus is not saying we should not be involved in pointing out failure in others.

In 1 Corinthians [5:12], St Paul says, “Is it not those inside the Church whom you are to judge?”

And elsewhere [1 Cor 2:15], “The spiritual person judges all things.”

But Jesus counsels a spiritual discipline that is vital that we must first and throughout the rest of our lives, practice before giving spiritual advice to another.

It is a call to the inward turn: First, take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly…

Jesus is telling us how to become a physician of souls.  It is by being continually introspective, that we remain humble (because we will see, and continue to see, just how fallen each of us is, at a deeper and deeper level) and our motivation for wanting to correct another will be in the right spirit of deep humility, gently, only when the time is right, if at all.

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Jesus is not saying we should not make judgements about others, but about making final judgements that would condemn another – God is the final judge.  He mixes truth with mercy always and we can practice that and become God-like.

We look to how Jesus behaved when on earth.  His mission was not a fault finding task but a task of building up others in love.  His whole life was a manifestation of the love of God shown in his mercy towards others.  And that was revealed in the most ultimate way by the laying down of his life for us all on the Cross that we might be forgiven and know mercy.

The inward turn reveals just how complicated we are, because we discover that we see ourselves, as “in a mirror dimly” [1 Cor 13:12].  We’ve all been subject in some way to trauma from our youth and it is the same with others around us.  Grow in wisdom before you seek to change another, and that comes from knowing your own soul.  There is no question it will lead to you to being more merciful.

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This inward turn to look at ourselves is painful.  St Paul says,

“We ourselves…groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” – that is, when all our passions are transformed!

But, again, St Paul says,

“I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

St Paul is saying is worth it.  It will require the cessation of distractions outwardly, “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret”, counsels Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” [St Matthew 6:6]

And then try to quiet down your mind.  Nothing more difficult!  But there are techniques in the history of Christian spiritual practices to help in this.

It is difficult to turn within and be quiet, because our minds are used to racing and being continually distracted by so many things.  It is also difficult to face ourselves because we are afraid of what we might see.  And yet seeing within is a must!  Maybe it is our traumas, our fears that must be faced, if we would be healed by grace… and so made able, in time, “to see clearly to take the speck that is in [our] brother’s eye.”  Some will find this process greatly aided by friends, by the help of a psychologist and/or a spiritual director.

Jesus wants us to become like him, able to bring transformation and healing to a world that is groaning in the pains of childbirth.  He wants an incomparable glory to be revealed in each of us.  It is hidden and waiting to be revealed – even Jesus Christ Himself.

If the inward turn seems frightening, it is quite normal, to us who are fallen.  And yet, Jesus would have us take courage.

It is why Jesus asks us to present His self-offering on the Cross, and we will do that now, to give us courage to look within.  In the liturgy we are given the time and opportunity to turn within and not despair but to repent of what is amiss and trust in the gift of our Lord’s Body and Blood, that our lowly body (and all its disordered passions) may be made like unto His glorious body. [Philip 3:21]

“I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

Amen +