The Hidden Glory of Christ

Despite all the wonders that Christ worked in the gospels, the true glory of His divine person was hidden. There’s something about God that cannot be seen with ordinary eyes. This was a pattern in Judaism: the curtain in the Jerusalem Temple hid the Holy of Holies. Moses encountered God in a burning bush and then in a cloud; Elijah veiled his face when God passed by in the quiet whisper. In the New Testament, Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, hid His divinity “behind” His flesh.

Sometimes it’s easy to reach out to God, and practices of the spiritual life bear much fruit. The COVID era has been anything but easy; spiritual growth has been through the refiner’s fire. In addition to the troubles of the COVID era, the Catholic Church is beset with massive confusion. Bishop opposes bishop, cardinal opposes cardinal, and the laity is left adrift with few shepherds boldly proclaiming the truth of the gospel.

That is not my aim for this article, as many others have discussed the issue already.  For an excellent take, I recommend reading Ralph Martin’s recent book, The Church in Crisis. I want to ask a different question. Humanity created a terrible mess that it has no chance of fixing on its own. We might be tempted to ask God, why stay hidden?

God welcomes the questions of our hearts.  The answer to this one is: look at the Scriptures.

Human vs. Divine Wisdom

The hiddenness of God is wrapped in mystery. Like all mysteries, it is not something we can fully understand and therefore frustrating to some degree. According to human wisdom, Jesus had any number of opportunities to wow His audience with His divinity. Perhaps the entirety of Jesus’ pre-resurrected life could be counted as hiding His innate glory, but I will focus on Jesus’ passion.

His trial on Holy Thursday night was a perfect example of what human wisdom would call a missed opportunity. Brought before the high priest, Jesus was subjected to an embarrassment of a trial. False witnesses couldn’t even agree on their stories. All during the proceedings, Jesus did not speak. The high priest, in exasperation, finally commanded Jesus: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63, RSC-CE). The high priest not only commanded Jesus but did so in his legitimate authority, in the name of God.

Was there a better time for the Transfiguration than that? Who better to convince than the collected religious leaders of Israel? Perhaps a grand miracle in front of the Romans and the Jewish crowd, after Pontius Pilate had him scourged. “Behold the man” (John 19:5) could have become, behold the Son of God. Throughout it all, Jesus remained silent. His divine nature still remained hidden.

Teaching the Mysteries

We can see other aspects of Jesus’ hiddenness in several passages from the gospels, both in His words and deeds.

Our Lord used parables in His teaching. After the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9), the apostles asked Jesus why He spoke to the crowds in parables. I wonder if the apostles fielded complaints from the crowd; regardless, they had their own difficulties in interpreting the parables (see Matthew 13:36). Matthew then cites an Old Testament prophecy: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 13:35, citing Psalm 78:2).

Parables paradoxically keep the mysteries of the Kingdom hidden and yet reveal them at the same time. Just like at Jesus’ trial before the high priest, this hiddenness is intentional. Some miracles continued in the vein of hiddenness. The Gospel of Mark has many passages where Jesus wrought a mighty deed and quickly told the healed person not to tell anyone (e.g. Mark 5:43, 7:36).

Target Audience

The humble and the lowly understood Jesus’ humble parables better than the religious leaders, the rich, and the powerful. Those that had faith experienced miracles; those that did not have faith conversely did not (Mark 6:1-6). Here we might be tempted to judge the Pharisees (they are an easy target sometimes) and those with small faith. Yet I think we share more in common with them than we think.

The Scriptures only mention two Jewish religious leaders as disciples. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by the cover of night (John 3:1-15), and Joseph of Arimathea, who kept his discipleship a secret until Jesus’ burial (John 19:38). I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the Pharisees was their certitude. Jesus did not fit their profile for the messiah. That isn’t to say they expected a warrior/political hero messiah, only that whatever the messiah would be, Jesus was not him. The Kingdom that Jesus preached did not sound like the kingdom they expected. Besides, should not the messiah come straight to them first?

Human reasoning would have gone to secular authorities and the Jewish religious leaders first for wider dissemination of the message. Throughout His ministry, Jesus didn’t court any of the rich and powerful. He chose ordinary men who worked with their hands as apostles. He lived in Nazareth, a small, backwater town that others ridiculed (John 1:46).

Jesus, Meek, and Humble of Heart…

We can say blandly that this is how God operates. That’s not very satisfying, however, and it needs more fleshing out. The Most Holy Trinity operates by an exchange of infinite love. The flow of love is infinite, perfectly self-giving, and perfectly trusting. In a word, humility is the main characteristic of divine love.

Being able to see Jesus for who He truly takes the right disposition of the heart. We have a self-centeredness that’s natural to our fallen nature. It’s a normal, human emotion to desire God to reveal Himself. What this boils down to, however, is who’s under the burden of proof? Should we be demanding God to come out of “hiding” and explain Himself?  It’s reminiscent of the words of Our Lord:

But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:16-17, NRSV-CE).

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are who they are from all eternity. So when we reproach God for supposedly hiding, we run the grave danger of refashioning Him according to our image and likeness, instead of the other way around. In this inversion of creation, God needs to sit down and take notes as I tell Him how things should occur. This is a serious spiritual pitfall that can get us chasing our own tail instead of God.

…Make Our Hearts Like Unto Thine

The good news? The Catholic Church has the roadmap to seek out Our Lord. At the top of the list are the Scriptures and the sacraments. In them we still experience the hiddenness of God; but Jesus’ very authority stands behind the Church, ensuring that the sacraments do exactly what they’re supposed to do.

If it is difficult to approach Jesus Himself, He gave us His Mother to help us draw closer to Him. We have a great blessing in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that irons out the faith. Also, we have the writings of the saints to direct us. Converts to Catholicism show us ways around and through various pitfalls.

When God remains hidden, He’s inviting us to pursue Him with greater vigor. Go now, run to the Father in prayer. Seek out Jesus in the Bible and the sacraments. Ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for direction. With grace, we can see God in the many ways He reveals Himself to us.