TEXTS
Man has been glorified, is a glorification bestowed by the Father as a gift. 348 There are many things that contribute to the whole glory of the man, but the one par excellence is God, who is not simply glorified by being known by the Son, but is glorified in the Son. 349 Concerning this matter, even if it is daring and beyond our abilities for us to scrutinize such a saying, we must nonetheless dare to suggest a potential topic for investigation. 350 I seek to know if it is possible for God to be glorified in some way besides being glorified, as I have explained, in the Son. Is God glorified to a greater extent in himself, because, in gazing on himself, he is pleased with an unspeakable satisfaction, contentment, and joy at his knowledge of himself and contemplation of himself – greater than contemplation in the Son, as one must understand and say such things about God – as he takes pleasure and rejoices in himself? 351 I employ these terms not as if they could properly be applied to God, but for lack of what might be termed unspeakable words (see 2 Cor. 12:4), which he alone can, along with his only-begotten Son, speak or think about himself in the proper sense. 352 Since we have come to the topic of God’s glorification in Christ, we should investigate as a corollary how he would be glorified in the Holy Spirit and in all those beings in whom the glory of the Lord has appeared or will appear. 353 In this regard I suppose that the Son is the radiance of the whole glory of God, according to what Paul said: “Being the radiance of his glory” (Heb. 1:3), but that partial radiances in anticipation of this radiance of the whole glory come to the rest of the rational creation, but I do not think than any being can contain the entire radiance of God’s glory except his Son. 354 Now therefore, since the plan4 involving the passion of the Son of Man on behalf of all did not take place apart from God (see Heb. 2:9), “therefore God has highly exalted him” (Phil. 2:9). It says not only that “the Son of Man has been glorified,” but “indeed God has been glorified in him” and thus one could explain this passage. 355 It is written: “No one has known the Son, except the Father” (Mt. 11:27) and it is said: “Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 16:17). 356 Therefore, in so far as the Son is not known by the world – “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him” (Jn 1:10) – he has not yet been glorified in the world, and his not being glorified in the world does not discredit the one who has not been glorified, but it discredits the world that does not glorify him. 357 When the heavenly Father revealed the knowledge of Jesus to those from the 238