Glory to God in the Highest!

These words, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will,” are very familiar to us. First, because they are the first lines of the magnificent hymn, the Gloria, that is prayed on most Sundays and major feast days at Holy Mass. Second, because these words are found in St. Luke’s Gospel (2:14) proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds announcing the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gloria has its origin in the sixth century, and has been prayed with its current regularity at Mass since the 12th Century. While it is in the form of a hymn, the Gloria can be rightly called a Christian manifesto, because it tells us why we are here on earth and particularly why we are at Mass. We exist, created by God male and female in his image and likeness, to praise Him, to bless Him, to adore Him, to glorify Him, and to give Him thanks for His glory. This is why we exist. This is at the heart of our being no matter what vocation God has given us. He created us; we live for Him, and are meant to be with Him forever in heaven, adoring, praising and loving Him.

The Mass is the most perfect prayer in which we come together to offer to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, adoration, praise, glory and thanksgiving. Mass is the most perfect prayer, because it is the prayer of the Church, the Body of Christ, in which the principal agent is Christ, the Head and Great High Priest (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1348). It is at the Eucharist that Christ offers praise and glory to the Father by His own Sacrifice of the Cross in the power of the Holy Spirit.

By our Baptism we receive the life and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity; we are given the capacity to enter into this great Sacrifice of glory and praise, as we are united with Christ, our Head, our Savior, and our Great High Priest. By our Baptism, we are enabled to enter into the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass, that echoes the Heavenly Liturgy. The Gloria finds its inspiration in the words of the Book of Revelation that describe the hymn of praise sung by the saints in heaven:

Great and wonderful are your deeds,
O Lord, the God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the Ages!
Who shall not fear and glorify
your name, O Lord?
For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you,
for your judgments have been revealed (Rev. 15:4-5).

The Gloria also manifests the Church’s confession of the truth of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is quintessentially Trinitarian. We call on God, “Almighty Father” and “heavenly King.” We proclaim Jesus as “Only begotten Son,” “Lord” and “Lamb of God.”

We call on the Holy Spirit, the bond of love between the Father and the Son.

This ancient hymn is also a great act of supplication. We acknowledge that Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He sits at the right hand of the Father in His Kingdom, and is the One who has mercy on us and hears our prayers. And, so, we beg mercy and help from Him. The whole Church and each member of the Church joins in this great act of supplication.

So we see that the Gloria is a powerful profession of faith. As God’s holy people we confess that Jesus is the Holy One, alone the Lord, and the Most High with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. This hymn must not be missed when we come to Mass. It tells us why we have come. We come filled with faith, love, awe and great reverence, for Almighty God has taken on our human nature and saves us by His Blood shed on the Cross. And for that we cry out, “Glory to God in the Highest!”

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh