Happy is he whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered Ps 32:1.
This is what happens when atrocities are undeservedly forgiven: Happiness!
Having purged ourselves within the threshold of Signum Crucis, and having passed through the Confiteor’s door, we enter the Gloria room where we behold an interlock of heavenly spirits and a first foretaste of the joy and activity of heaven.
We become absorbed in the Trinity, and with all heavenly hosts we sing praises to God in worship, thanksgiving and adoration. Gloria is what they do in heaven. The Divine dance, Gloria is a waltz with God. How the trumpet should blast, and the bell should ring, and the drum should roll at every Mass in which the Gloria is sung!
How tepid our hearts are, how tepid. We see nothing and feel nothing of this unison of the abode of glory. While some display only an external gesture, leaving one to wonder if anything is left of a deep awe which this reality should provoke; Others remain nonchalant, with neither movement nor singing -as if bored, and awaiting the period to sit- aloof from the wonder which we all struggle to catch.
Gloria is an experience of the heart. We see and feel it deeply in the recess of our being. It is a worship in spirit and in truth (Jn 4: 24). It is heaven, it is salvation, it is happiness, it is what takes place within the household of God. Our hearts should dance more than our body, for this is entirely a spiritual scene.
We enter heaven and we experience something more than a banquet, something akin to a jamboree, but a jamboree of the heart where we are awed by the Trinitarian Person of God.
It is no wonder why the Church has paused the Gloria in favour of a long Confiteor during Lent, to show that it is ‘not yet Uhuru’, and that within the great Lent of this age, we can catch a glimpse of His glory in the great Gloria at Easter.
And I soon experienced this at Mass: For I thought Gloria was the summit, until I realised the house I entered had become a journey, and I had to move on.
