Glorifying God
in death
Jesus told Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
John explains those cryptic words: “This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.”
Peter’s death would include being carried to a place he did not want to go. I can’t think of a more apt description for a lot of what we all experience in life…and death. Being forced through circumstances or carried by others (metaphorically or physically) to a place we don’t want to go is the story of a lot of people. Our will is overridden and there is nothing we can do about it. In Peter’s case, it meant his death.
And yet…
It was by this very death, a death Peter’s heart and will resisted, that he glorified God.
What an incredible statement.
To glorify God is to manifest something of His nature and character in this world through our lives. And in Peter’s case, through his death. If it is true, and I think it is, that Peter died by crucifixion, it is even more astounding that John would say this. The only thing more humiliating than death by crucifixion is death by crucifixion upside down.
And yet…
It was by this death that Peter would glorify God.
The Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?”
The prescribed reply is, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
Yes, we are to glorify God in life. And we can glorify Him in death as well.
