Christ's Second Coming: 2 Thessalonians 1:10-2:2, especially vs. 11: "Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power." Persecution often impels Christians to ask: "Since the Lord Jesus is coming again to 'give rest' (2 Thess. 1:7) to His Faithful ones who suffer affliction, how will He make right the harsh treatment His People have experienced?" To this the Apostle declares: the Lord, in flaming fire, justly will wreak "vengeance on those who do not know God, and...do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 1:8).
Earlier in Second Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul declared that those who refuse to know God and to obey Him will be excluded "from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:9). Clearly, those who persecuted Christians will be counted among those who refused to know God, and their exclusion from the Lord will be just. On the other hand, is mere 'rest,' or simple respite from affliction, a fair corrective for whatever injustices "all those who believe" (2 Thess. 1:10) have had to endure? The Apostle suggests something more: God will count the Faithful worthy to have "all the good pleasure of His goodness" fulfilled in them (vs. 11). Let us consider today: "Of what will that 'good pleasure of His goodness'" consist?
St. Paul states that when Christ comes again, He will "be glorified in His saints" (vs. 10), but what does he mean, Christ will "be glorified in His saints"? Glory resides in God. His nature is glorious (Ex. 15:11), a truth proclaimed in the Psalm read before the doors of the church during the Paschal Liturgy: "Lift up your gates, O ye princes...and the King of Glory shall enter in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory" (Ps. 23:9,10 LXX).
Most assuredly, God's glory exceeds the scope of what it means to be human. A great and trusted man of God, the Prophet Moses, found grace before God, yet when he asked the Lord to manifest Himself before him, he was told, "I will pass by before thee with My glory, and I will call by My Name, 'the Lord,' before thee;" but, God added, "Thou shalt not be able to see My face; for no man shall see My face, and live....and when My glory shall pass by, then I will put thee into a hole of the rock; and I will cover thee over with My hand, until I shall have passed by...and then shalt thou see My back parts; but My face shall not appear to thee" (Ex. 33:19-22).
The awesome otherness of God's glory was later confirmed on Mt. Tabor when the Lord manifested His glory to His chief disciples - yet only "in as much as they could bear it," not fully. The icon of Transfiguration depicts these disciples humbled on the ground by the overwhelming radiance of the Lord's divine glory. God's glory is overpowering for creatures such as we are.
How can the Lord's glory be given to His saints? The Holy Fathers speak of a "noetic enjoyment" on the part of the saints, a reality experienced with the eyes of the heart. Hence, St. Isaac the Syrian says, "Just as each man enjoys the physical sun according to the clarity and receptive power of his sight...so in the age to come all the righteous shall dwell in one place indivisibly, but each of them is illumined by the one noetic Sun according to his own measure."
In the Apostles' words, the acquisition of glory by God's people, is "the work of faith with power" (2 Thess. 1:11), a result of a process called 'theosis, the Faithful become 'like God,' an overflowing of His grace and power. By the transforming power of God, the Faithful are able to labor and acquire a portion of glory - to a measure possible for humans. Glory comes by faith, God's power, and our works. God will "be marveled at in all who believe" [RSV] (vs. 10). Let us rejoice, for such fulfillment will more than merely balance all injustice ever suffered for Christ.
O Thou Who reignest over the courts of Thy Saints, remember us also in Thy kingdom!