“The glory of God is man fully alive.” St. Irenaeus
Maybe it would be easier to understand glory if we lived in
the Middle Ages as the examples of T.V. glory I draw from my youth were based
on American Gladiators, Guts, and Legends of the Hidden Temple. I also think
about the crown of glory bestowed on Olympians as they stand picture ready for
the medal ceremony. I tend to encapsulate glory in the end product, quickly
forgetting the marring attained along the way towards the victor’s podium
placement. As we celebrate Easter, we are called to remember how the glory of
God shines through His sacrificial humanity and is found through His glorified
wounds.
“The wounds of Christ are His intercession before the
Father. His wounds are the price His Mercy paid, ”Br. Malachy instructed.
Similar to Christ’s wounds, Our Lady of Czestochowa bears wounds as well. “On April 14, 1430 robbers sometimes
associated with the Hussites of Bohemai, looted the monastery and made three
slashes on the face of Our Lady in an attempt to remove valuable stones,
finally smashing the image into three pieces. In order to repair the icon, the
original paint was removed and the icon was repainted. Although the icon was
restored, the slashes in Our Lady’s face remain visible today and has been
associated with numerous miracles.” She, like Christ, was wounded.
When have you been wounded? What did you do about it? Sometimes
we try to put band-aids on situations that require surgery. Sometimes we pick
at scabs disrupting the healing process. If we surrender our wounds to the
Divine Physician, His mercy and grace will heal us, even while we wait for a
cure.
Jasna Gora, “the Bright Mountain” shrine of the Black
Madonna at Czestochowa was and is a “shrine of great hope.” “For it was to
Jasna Gora that every Pole came, physically or in spirit, to bring the
‘decisive moments’ of life, the “occasions of responsibility,” to be laid
before the Virgin. (Witness to Hope, 309). It is a lighthouse of hope. By
Christ’s wounds, we can claim victory in the midst of our suffering. We can
live the joy of the resurrection bearing the glory of God, which proclaims
abundant Life’s triumph over death.
Verso l’alto,
KgrC
This is my Resurrection Song!
There is No fear now, let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally
There's a plan and a purpose
no matter how you feel
Just hold on to the promise that we'll never be undone
And when you fall like the rain, you're gonna rise like the sun
Just hold on to the promise that we'll never be undone
And when you fall like the rain, you're gonna rise like the sun
You’re not alone in how you’ve been/ Everybody loses, we all
got bruises
“It is not the critic who counts; not
the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no
effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the
deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in
a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.” – Teddy Roosevelt
Our Lady of Czestochowa
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