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“The glory of God is man fully alive.” – St. Irenaeus
What does this quote mean to you? Please share in the comments!
Quote: Man fully alive
“The glory of God is man fully alive.” – St. Irenaeus
What does this quote mean to you? Please share in the comments!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Man fully alive is when a man’s physical and spiritual life are both in union with God’s will and that will is being put into action through serving others as Christ has served us.
Man (encompassing men AND women), using the gifts God has given to him/her and LIVING life…not just biding time on this journey to heaven. Enjoying life to the fullest…helping others along the way…sharing faith…being people of integrity…being people of joy, even in the face of adversity! I
Jesus! He is the man who was and is fully alive and capable of making us fully alive (John 10:10). In transforming humanity and giving to it the possibility of fullness of life, He became/was revealed as the glory of God (John 17:4).
It doesn’t really matter what I think it means…it matters what the Church thinks it means…which is:
294 The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God made us “to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace”,[138] for “the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man’s life is the vision of God: if God’s revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God.”[139] The ultimate purpose of creation is that God “who is the creator of all things may at last become “all in all”, thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude.”[140]
Fully Alive is the textbook we used in elementary religion class in Ontario Catholic schools ;)
I also used a text called “Fully Alive and Fully Human” in a philosophy class I took in college. It really brought the importance (not over-importance however) of our humanity to my mind. It is not just that we live for God alone and blindly reject our humanity. No. This flies in the very face of the Incarnation. But this is yet another lie the Evil One will have us believe if we are not prayerful people. Pray unceasingly my brothers and sisters. Jesus is both God and human. What a God!
For me this quotation reflects the image of Jesus, a man who was fully alive. He was physically fit, mentally alert and full of the Holy Spirit. That is what our Lord hopes for us to become, to be fully alive in Christ. We therefore achieve full balance in our spirit, mind and body and reflect the glory of God.
God’s Glory….His Brillance, His love, His ever-lasting unconditional Love…Man fully alive…when God created us, He created us by reflecting his image and likeness into us. When we are fully WHO WE ARE, with all our faults, our dreams, desires, hopes, challenges, and all obstacles, when we can confront all the negative things, and believe only in the positive outcome…when we can smile after a long day and thank God, for everything…we are fully alive, and Gods glory has been redeemed…
I’ve heard it said, God is glorified in us when we are satisfied in Him. Though this statement is not directly found in scripture, (nor the quote that we are all responding to) it does resonate within me. I believe that we are fully alive when we step into the thing that we have been created to do. Our desires, gifts, personalities and dreams, if we get honest with ourselves, all point us to the calling and purposes of God that was planned for us before we were even born according to Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” There is nothing better than waking up in the morning with the sense that we were created for God’s glory.
“The glory of God is man fully alive.”
There’s wisdom behind this statement. It is when I am authentically and fully me that God manifests Godself to me. That’s why God chose to manifest Godself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was ‘truly human’ (and truly God, ofcourse) and it is in His full humanity that we see the glory of God. So I urge you all to be the best and fullest YOU that you can be. That’s our truest calling or vocation in life.
The glory of God is man fully alive means that the Father, SOn, and Spirit created the human race to share in their shared life and love. (adoption accomplished already in Jesus) To glorify God is to live loved in the Father’s embrace fully enjoying all of the gifts He has given us. To enjoy bbq’s, fine Scotch, love-making, laughter, food, friendship, football, fishing, singing, working, living, loving, and dreaming -just to name a few! To glorify God is to enjoy all of these things as He intended and to do so without religion but in the freedom Jesus has shared with us.
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