Psalm 115 begins, “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name give glory.” We give glory to God when by our words, in song and prayer, and by the actions and decisions of our lives, we acknowledge God as the source of all that is good and the one whom we should follow. God gives our lives purpose. We came from God and for God we should live.
In fact, when we’re living a full human life in this world it is then that God is glorified by us. We align our decisions, big and small, with how God created us to be, whether this is how we treat our family members, how we have fun, or what we devote our lives to. St. Irenaeus famously said, “the glory of God is human being fully alive”. Living for the glory to God orients our lives in the correct direction and undoes the warped direction of sin, whereby we live for ourselves, for our own glory. All we do at our parishes, from simple acts of kindness to the big goals we work hard to accomplish with the talents God’s given us, we offer for the glory of God.
Humans are not “fully alive” without living with, and dependent upon, others. The Mass is an expression of this reality. We all come together at the Mass and hear God calling us through his word. We respond by proclaiming to God that we will live for him as we worship him and as we unite ourselves to him in the Eucharist.
“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31