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Dear Parish Faithful,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!
One of the great Orthodox homilists of the 19th c. was St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (+1867). He combined great rhetorical skills with a deep knowledge of the Scriptures and an in-depth awareness of the inexhaustible resources of Orthodox theology. In one of his many Nativity homilies, Met. Philaret chose as his main focus, the following text from St. Luke's Gospel:
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest! (Lk. 2:13)
There follows in this homily a remarkable passage about the meaning of the term "the glory of God." I have seen this passage cited by later Orthodox theologians (such as Vladimir Lossky and John Meyendorff), in numerous publications because of its penetrating depth into the biblical and theological concept of the glory of God. It is more than timely to read these words during the Nativity season as we join the angels in precisely praising God with the words "Glory to God in the highest!" This text forms the deepest content of the ancient hymn known as the Great Doxology:
Glory is the revelation, a manifestation, a reflection, an externalization of inner perfection. God, from eternity, is revealed to Himself in the eternal birth of the Son of God, and in the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, both of whom are one in essence with the Father. In this way, unity in the Holy Trinity shines forth essentially in an undimmed and unchanging glory.
God the Father is the Father of glory (Eph. 1:17), the Son of God is the brightness of His glory (Heb. 1:3), and Himself has the glory which [He] had with the [Father] ... before the world was (Jn. 17:5). Equally, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of glory (I Pet. 4:14). The blessed God who is above all glory abides in His own internal glory, so that He does not require any other witnesses and does not need any participants in His glory.
However, since, by His endless goodness and love, He desires to communicate His blessedness to have gracious participants in His glory, He moved outward with His endless perfections, and they are manifested in His creation. His glory appears to the heavenly powers, is reflected in mankind, and is dressed in the beauty of the visible world. He gives it, and it is accepted by its participants, and then it returns to Him, and this circle of the glory of God comprises the blessed life and the prosperity of creation.
Toward the end of the same homily, Met. Philaret draws the faithful into this glorification of God in the presence of the Mystery of the Incarnation with the following rhetorical flourish:
This is the glorious mystery and mysterious power of this day! Heavenly servants of the light saw the dawning of this glory before we ever did, and immediately, having turned to Him, they declared, Glory to God in the highest! Now it is no longer the morning, but the full day of this glory. Let our doxology rise up. Let it go up also to the inhabitants of Heaven. Let our own words rise up in the joyful ecstasy of the heart to the very throne of the Almighty: "Glory to God in the highest!"
