“Glory” is a hard term to pin down, exactly. Oh, its definition is straightforward enough: worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving, but “glory” is one of those words whose definition doesn’t really match its meaning. Even the old Catholic Encyclopedia, whose discussion of all-things-Catholic is encyclopedic kind of dodges the phrase, saying: “This word has many shades of meaning which lexicographers are somewhat puzzled to differentiate sharply. As our interest in it here centres around its ethical and religious significance, we shall treat it only with reference to the ideas attached to it in Holy Scripture and theology.” Still, things are called “glorious” (or, regrettably, inglourious), some people seek to glorify, and St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that everything we do, we are to “do all to the glory of God.”

And we confidently use the term, admitting that any one of us may have a substandard understanding of how, exactly, we’re to give glory to God. Yet so it is.

*****

A few years ago, Major League Baseball pitcher D.J. Carrasco was a member of the Kansas City Royals. He pitched for my hometown team from like 2003 to 2005 with mediocre success. But for a while in early 2005, Carrasco looked like a surprisingly good pitcher on a team that had precious few players who could be called “surprisingly good” at anything. One game in that season really stands out in my memory, a Tuesday night game in June of that year when the ‘Boys in Blue trumped the San Francisco Giants 8-1 in an interleague game, snapping a skid of losing 8 or 9 road games in a row. After the game, I remember his on-field interview with the TV crew where they ask the player how it felt to win and whatnot– and Carrasco said something that really stuck out. I’m paraphrasing here, but Carrasco commented that he went into every game just pitching for the “glory of Christ, Jesus” and that he did “all things for Him.”

With that, he smiled ear to ear, and walked off camera.

Back in 2005, I was more interested in following this rotten baseball team than I was interested in following Jesus, so I rolled my eyes and turned off the television. That team was rotten. In 2005, the Kansas City Royals won 56 games and lost 106. They had 3 different managers that year, including one who decided to shower in the locker room with his clothes on because he thought it would pump up his losing club and hiring another who would go on to lose more games than any other manager in baseball history. But I digress.

One of my good friends hates it when atheletes give God credit for their victory. “God is undefeated” he likes to say. He’s right, of course. You never hear the game losers say they lost the game because God loves the other team more than them. But I think that I’ll give D.J. Carrasco the benefit of his statement, because he didn’t say that Jesus won the game for them. But rather that he pitches for Jesus.

Are you laughing yet? Go ahead and snicker; it sounds lame. After all, Jesus probably has more important things to worry about than mediocre pitchers tossing 87 MPH fastballs for His glory. But if I can stand back from my own snark for a moment, I have to quietly admit that now a few years later, I finally understand what Carrasco meant when he said he pitches for Jesus. Carrasco was recalling St. Paul’s words to “do all to the glory of God.”

I haven’t spent very much of my life do things that glorify the Lord. In fact, most of my adulthood has been rather inglorious. But the nice thing about living another day is the opportunity to do the next one a little different than the last.

*****

Starting about three years ago, I began thinking that I needed a career change. I’d just left one decent little job in banking to a new decent little job in local government. But none of the pieces were really fitting correctly. And so with a little prayerful reflection and some wise counsel from friends and family, I decided to do something dramatically different– and I entered night school to get my teacher’s license. It took a little time to get going (and some academic backtracking from some… inglorious academic decisions), but now I’m on the verge of finishing my license to teach high school social studies. I quit my job about 2 months ago so I could do my student teaching (the last part of my license) and to do the reporting that follows it. We’ve gone without my income for a while now. No, I don’t have a job lined up yet. Yes, I am fortunate enough to have a temporary gig that should start sooner or later. No, the job market isn’t very good for teachers right now– especially in my subject area. Yes, I think that will improve. No, I can’t coach football. And no, I’m not worried about that.

*****

Do you have a favorite chapter in the bible? I didn’t until about 2 years ago when one just really jumped out to me. Yes, I have a favorite chapter of the Bible. I like Matthew 6 quite a lot– and for a variety of reasons.. It really speaks to me. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ just finished the main part of the Sermon on the Mount and directs the next part to the disciples. There are basically 4 parts to the chapter:

First, Jesus gives specific directions about how to conduct yourself when you are in prayer. It’s that part about going into a closed room and not making a big deal out of it. It’s a reminder that when we pray, it’s a moment between us and God, not us and other people who watch us and God. I think about this line a lot during Lent. For the last couple of years, I’ve given up meat altogether during Lent– and I wanted EVERYONE to know how hard it was. But that’s a no-no; if I’m doing it for the Lord, then I can leave everyone else out of it.

Next in Mt 6, Jesus gives us His prayer– the Our Father. This may come as a surprise, but yes, the Our Father isn’t something that someone just made up. The words come from Christ Himself. Catholics pray these words of Christ every day in every Catholic Mass. The prayer isn’t long, just a couple of sentences. But it has so much to teach.

Third in the Chapter, Jesus gives his disciples– and everyone else listening– a stern rebuke about their priorities in life. “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.” He says that so many people say that they want to live good and holy lives, but when you look at the things they spend their time and money on, it’s hardly focused on living a good and holy life. “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Eek. Funny how in our modern age, over 2000 years removed from Christ’s earthly life, we’re still going into the office on Sundays, skimping at the collection plate, but ordering dessert after dinner, and remembering the parish food drive when you notice that other people have dropped off their food for that month. And just so this doesn’t sound accusatory, I’m writing these words about me. *sigh*

But the last part of Mt 6 has calmed a lot of my fears lately. Especially that part about me quitting my job and not having a permanent gig ready. Christ says this:

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

Mrs. WRC and I have a little money saved up (not a lot, but we’re treading water) that has allowed me to quit a safe and stable government job with a state guaranteed pension so that I could be a full time student for a short while. It’s a little scary, I must admit. We’ve got a mortgage on the WRC estate. But this decision to go into teaching is a little more than a decision to make a career change. It was a decision to change my life so I could do something that can truly glorify the Lord!

So I’m doing it. I’m teaching for Jesus, from here on out. I never did any other job for any other person than myself before, but this time is something new. Christ and I have a deal, actually. Through some particularly hard parts of going back to school, I’ve asked him to hold my hand in some rough patches. And some nights when I’m doing homework until the wee hours so I can get it finished on time, or when I’ve had to drive all over town to arrange a video camera, or get a form signed by a teacher who is on campus 2 days a week, or when I’ve got to get a background check and a medical checkup submitted to the state by 4:00 on a Tuesday, but the campus medical center is closed that day because the main nurse and the substitute nurse are both sick at the same time and I’m zipping through traffic on my lunch break to get it all done before I miss the deadline… well heck. He’s walked me through every minor trial and tribulation along the way.

You may be unimpressed. After all, lots of people deal with lots of deadlines or late night homework, and most people that really want to get their license handle these little obstacles without difficulty. Fine, I don’t care. I’m giving Him the credit (and some worthy patrons that I’ve taken along the way: St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila and St. James… if you’ve been praying and asking any of those four for intercession, sorry. They’ve been pretty much working for me full time lately). I’ve had too many little minor miracles in the last 3 years to believe that this is all my doing.

But I’m not worried about finishing my license (report is due next week, I take one last test in a couple upcoming weeks). It’ll happen. I’m not worried about finding a job, either– that’ll happen sooner or later too. Consider the lillies of the field! Maybe I am being silly or naive. Maybe. But if so, then I’ll be silly and naive to glorify the Lord. I’m not doing this just for myself or my patient and forgiving wife. I’m doing it for Jesus.

*****

The Jesuits have a little phrase that runs through my head from time to time. Jesuits are an order of priests– like monks, except not really monks. But they have this phrase that sticks in my craw. “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam”. It means “For the Greater Glory of God”. There’s a lot of ways to apply the phrase, often abbreviated AMDG, from building rich and elaborate churches that are dedicated to God (which incidently, puts Christ’s words in Mt 6 into practice about where your treasure and heart is), or reaching out to the needy and doing it for Christ’s sake, or for making every piece of your life serve to glorify the Lord. Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated all his work “AMDG”, and Edward Elgar followed this practice on his masterpiece “The Dream of Gerontius”. And so likewise do I dedicate my new life’s work Ad Majoriam Dei Gloriam. I like the little phrase. I like it so much that I’ve added it at the bottom of http://www.WhollyRoaminCatholic.com. It’s a good reminder.

I will probably struggle with this as a teacher. Some days will certainly be inglorious and the job may send me to the confessional from time to time. So be it. Jesus didn’t say the job would be an easy one. If I have to offer it up, then I will. And if I have to do my turn in the confessional, then I’ll do that for the greater glory of God, too.

I don’t know much about glory, really. I can’t give you a good definition, and I think the dictionaries don’t really do the concept justice either. But I know what I need to do so I can make my life point to Christ’s.

Here’s to hoping I have that courage. But that’s another post altogether.