Within the Christian vocabulary there are a number of terms that are regularly bandied about, but cry out for definition. Grace immediately comes to mind as one of the most common. A close second however is the term glory. We know it is something that we are supposed to give to God in everything we do (1Cor 10:31). Short of that however we are hard pressed to describe what this actually entails. For something so important then it behooves us to reflect on exactly what we mean when we speak of the glory of God and how it is possible that we could actually “give” it to Him.
Because we cannot know God as He is in this life, we spend time contemplating His attributes—His goodness, His power, His wisdom, His omniscience, His Immutability, and so on. But God Himself “spends His time” contemplating only one—His beauty. That is, His beauty captures all of His attributes in their wholeness, proportionality, and radiance. Sacred Scripture has a word for this undiminishing beauty, glory.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Glory
In theological terms God’s beauty, that is, what He is eternally contemplating, is referred to as His intrinsic glory. From a human perspective this might seem the very height of narcissism, until we call to mind that all goodness and truth are found in God. The Father, in gazing upon (or knowing) His perfection generates the Son. From the mutual love of the Father and the Son for the Divine Perfection proceeds the Holy Spirit. Basking in the light of His infinite perfection, God has no need for anything other than Himself and yet, still He created. Without any need, the only reason for creation must be found in Himself, that is, it must be because of Who He is. Out of love of His own goodness, He desired to communicate that goodness to creatures.
No finite creature could ever “hold” the infinite goodness and so He makes a multitude of creatures, each with the purpose of reflecting His goodness, even if to a lesser or greater degree. Or, as St. Thomas says, “the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God” (ST I, q.65, a.2).
From this notion, theologians develop the term extrinsic glory. This is the reflection of the intrinsic glory that is found in creatures. The Psalmist proclaims “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1) and St. Paul reminds the Romans that “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made” (Romans 1:20). Simply in existing, all things reflect God’s glory. But He also willed to make creatures who not only reflected His glory, but could bask in it with Him.
The proof of this is within the story of creation, as elucidated through the scholastic dictum, “first in the order of intention is last in the order of execution” sheds further light on this. The last act of creation, that is, the first act of the Seventh Day, is God’s “command” for man to bask in it by joining in God’s rest seeing all things as “good, very good” in reflecting the glory of God. Man is invited to set aside this time specifically for basking in the “after burn” of God’s glory as a perpetual reminder of his purpose.
Man, then, among all visible creation is the only creature with the capacity to “give” God glory. Like the rest of visible creation he reflects it, but with his unique powers of knowing and loving he can also give it back by acknowledging it and willing his participation in it. This is what we mean when we say that man gives glory to God—not that God doesn’t already have it, but that through adoration and praise he may willingly return it to God.
Glory as a Temptation
Man is constantly confronted with two temptations. The first is to see only the glory and to forget the One Whom it points to. God has put just enough traces of His glory in creation so that man will seek out the true source. But even these mirrors are so beautiful that there is always the temptation that they eclipse the One whom they were meant to image. We can fall in love with the creatures and forget the Creator.
While this temptation is ever-present in our fallen world, it is the second temptation that is the more serious of the two. With the capacity to give God glory comes the (seeming) ability to keep it for ourselves. This is the sin of Lucifer and his minions and forms the seeds of pride within us.
Now we see that St. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians to do all for the glory of God is no pious sentiment, but a program of life. Every thing that we think, do, and say should find its reference point in magnifying God’s glory. Our Lord too wanted this to be our program of life. He told His disciples that their light, that is their reflection of God’s glory, should so shine that when other men see what they are doing they know immediately that it is not their own work, but a manifestation of God’s glory (Mt 5:17). This constant referral of all things to God’s glory increases our share in it both now and in eternal life—“ whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”