Originally published at crisis magazine
Many years ago, I had a wonderful plumber who was always there when I needed him. Nothing was too much trouble, both night and day, on weekends, and even on holidays, when he never charged more than the current rate. Sad to say, I never really appreciated him. He was just the man I turned to when I had trouble with my plumbing.
Then, one day, his little boy was taken ill at school and he dashed off to bring him home, forgetting his tool box. As I picked it up to take it to his home, I saw these words written on the underside of the lid: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam—“For the greater glory of God.” I had taken such little interest in him that I did not even know that he was a Catholic. When I did come to know him and his wife and his family, it was to know the closest that I had ever come to a replication on earth of the family of God’s love in Heaven.
Western readers with no knowledge of the Semitic mind and culture that was steeped in the meaning and understanding of signs and symbols fail to see the significance
