Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

In our Theology II class a common term is "the glory of God is man fully alive," but what does this really mean.  Well I think that we can all a agree that God created the world and he did it to express his love for us.  St. Bonaventure tells us that "the world was made for the glory of God.  Not to increase his glory," which means that God did not create the world for his personal gain, but share his glory with the world.  God truly expressed his love for us by creating us, an action which he definitely did not have to perform.  So the Glory God is when he manifests himself and his goodness through creation.  God created us, human beings, to be in communion with him.  One problem, when Adam and Eve committed original sin, we had fallen out of communion with God and could no longer fulfill our one true task.  So God sent his only son to redeem us by sacrificing himself on the cross.  Again, this is God showing his enduring and  generous love for us, imperfect beings.  So it is the least we can do to act as responsible Christians and do our best to refrain from sin. 

The next step we must take to understanding the glory od God is man full alive now that we know what the Glory of God is.  Man fully alive is a person doing what God would want us to do.  Making the morale Christian decision and helping others.  An easy way to do this is when you are presented with a difficult situation, ask yourself "What would Jesus do?"  This ill usually get you going on the right track and you will often make the right decision. Now that we have an understanding what man fully alive is, we can begin to piece the phrase together.  So if the glory of God is creation and man fully alive is someone a good morale decision, when we put them together it takes on a new meaning.  The glory of God is man fully alive means that when a Christian is acting as God wants him to, then he is emanation the Glory of God.  I hope that this helps explain the concept of "The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive."

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