Now, what the Romans thought glorious in their days is notorious enough.
No one can look upon the picture of a Roman triumph without seeing that
their idea of glory was force, power, brute force, self-willed dominion,
selfish aggrandizement. But this was not the glory which St. John saw in
Christ, for His glory was full of grace, which is incompatible with self-
will and selfishness.
The Greek's meaning of glory is equally notorious. He called it wisdom.
We call it craft--the glory of the sophist, who could prove or disprove
anything for gain or display; the glory of the successful adventurer,
whose shrewdness made its market out of the stupidity and vice of the
barbarian. But this is not the glory of Christ, for St. John saw that it
was full of truth.
Therefore, neither strength nor craft are the glory of Christ; and,
therefore, they are not the glory of God. For the glory of Christ is the
glory of God, and none other, because He is very God, of very God
begotten. In Christ, man sees the unseen, and absolute, and eternal God
as He is, was, and ever will be.
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