In today's first reading, Romans 8: 18-25, St. Paul reminds us that "the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed to us." "Creation," Paul says to us, "awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God...[A]ll creation," Paul tells us, "is groaning in favor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the reception of our bodies."
You and I and creation are all one, as we all move and live and have our being in God and God in us and, thus, we in one another. The sufferings that any of us, and any part of creation, "are as nothing compared with the glory" that awaits us in eternity. The transformation of all of creation, of all creatures of this earth and of humankind will be mind-bottling. The glorious freedom that we all will experience is not something we can imagine on this side of the grave. The robe of glory, the robe of salvation, the robe of righteousness that each of us wears and which God sees when He looks upon us, even now, and which was bought for us by the blood of Jesus, we will see when the veil is lifted from our eyes and we enter our eternal homes. That is why the psalmist in today's responsorial psalm proclaims: The Lord has done marvels for us, as we will, like the Israelites brought back from exile, will be stored to our true home in eternity when we pass through the door of death! PRAISE THE LORD! THANKS THE LORD! GIVE GOD THE GLORY!
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