When the Paschal Candle for Easter was blessed on Holy Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil, the priest marked the Cross on the candle with five wax nails, saying while each was inserted:
What makes the wounds inflicted on Christ in His Passion glorious? Our word “glory” finds its root in the Greek word “doxa,” which refers to an appearance so mighty and clear that it bears incontrovertible witness to its own truth. The truth on display in Christ’s wounds is His love for us, love to the end.
By sin we have lost the original glory that was ours in the Garden of Eden. But now, because of Christ’s Resurrection, even our flesh will be radiant: So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Those who have remained faithful to Christ to the end will see the renewal of their bodies. These bodies will be animated by a higher life-principle and endowed with incorruptibility, power, and spirituality, which are properties of God Himself. What is beyond glory - the glory of God? Nothing; and that is why all of the psalms prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours end with a doxology, or glory speech: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”
Let us glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered (cf. Galatians 6:14).
David J. Conrad
- By his holy
- and glorious wounds
- may Christ the Lord
- guard us
- and protect us. Amen.
What makes the wounds inflicted on Christ in His Passion glorious? Our word “glory” finds its root in the Greek word “doxa,” which refers to an appearance so mighty and clear that it bears incontrovertible witness to its own truth. The truth on display in Christ’s wounds is His love for us, love to the end.
By sin we have lost the original glory that was ours in the Garden of Eden. But now, because of Christ’s Resurrection, even our flesh will be radiant: So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Those who have remained faithful to Christ to the end will see the renewal of their bodies. These bodies will be animated by a higher life-principle and endowed with incorruptibility, power, and spirituality, which are properties of God Himself. What is beyond glory - the glory of God? Nothing; and that is why all of the psalms prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours end with a doxology, or glory speech: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”
Let us glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered (cf. Galatians 6:14).
David J. Conrad
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