Holy, Holy, Holy
by Fr. David M. Knight
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Thirty-Third Week of the Year
Rv 4:1-11/Lk 19:11-28 (Lectionary 499)
The symbolism in Revelation 4:1-11 is daunting, but the message is clear: God is “Holy, holy, holy.” He is beyond any human understanding of greatness, goodness or holiness. He is “Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” He surpasses, transcends, overflows all boundaries of space, time and being. He is simply unimaginable.
And the response we should make to him is unimaginable. “O Lord our God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor and power!” How can we praise, thank, honor, worship or adore him in any way commensurate with what we owe him? He is the Source, the Giver of our very existence. Without his original and ongoing act of creation, each of us is one “who was not, who is not, and who will not be.” Of ourselves we are nothing, created from nothing, with nothing to keep us in existence except God’s continuing desire and choice to do so. This is true of us and of everything we see, touch, feel, use, admire and enjoy: “You have created all things! By your will they came to be and were made!” Take God out of the picture and there is simply no picture left. We who know the Father through Jesus the Son pray, “Hallowed be thy Name!” But there is no way we could ever “hallow” it enough.
In the light of this, and returning to yesterday’s Reflection, is it not objectively blasphemy to be a “lukewarm” Christian? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) said, “To deal with God moderately is an abomination.” Wikipedia quotes him: “God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance." Both are true: we simply cannot deal with God as one among many. God is One. God is All. The only appropriate response to God is to abandon all we have and are to his service. To “love the LORD our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might.” If two plus two makes four, all minus anything equals zero. Take anything from “all” and there is no more “all.” Hold anything back from what you give to God, and whatever you give, it is not to God.[i]
If all we had were the logic of this, we might despair. But God is love. He accepts us as we are, works with us, waits for us to grow into the “perfection of love.” Once we love and want to give him all, he just asks forward motion.
Luke 19:11-28: Jesus says we are judged, not as performers, but as persons; not by what we produce, but by how we choose to use what we have to work with. True freedom is not psychological or physical but personal.
Initiative: Pledge all but pay as you go. God invented layaway
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
God invented layaway. I love it! Only David Knight could write about God’s sublime otherness, then cap it with this sentence.