Homily, 11-25-24; Monday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time:
“Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.”
These are words we hear in our responsorial psalm today. Indeed who can ascend Mt. Zion, the holy mountain that we heard about in our first reading from the Book of Revelation? We are not sinless. Our hearts are not clean. We have desires that are vain. What hope do we have of being among the 144,000 standing with Jesus, the Lamb, upon the mountain that represents Heaven?
We have hope because Jesus ransoms us and makes us part of that 144,000, a symbolic number that represents all those who have persevered and followed Christ. There are only two choices. We are ultimately either marked with name of Jesus and the Father on our forehead, or we are marked with the sign of the beast. We must follow Jesus and not deny him, and He will ransom us from our sinfulness. If we are unfaithful to Jesus through our sinfulness, He will remain faithful to us. But if we deny Him, He will deny us.
We read in the Letter to the Hebrews: “You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-23).
We are not now perfect, but Christ has ransomed us and He will make us perfect, maybe through time in Purgatory, or maybe through trials on earth, and definitely though His mercy. If we do not deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we will be among the 144,000 following the Lamb wherever He goes. We might enjoy organ music now, but I hope we will enjoy the sound of harps for eternity. We might not sing well now as we gather around this altar on earth, but we will be able to learn and sing well a new song before the heavenly throne. We will have a very short playlist.