or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
But this isn't very specific yet, is it? It is kind of abstract. What does the clean heart look like? What does a life lived without vain desire look like? What does a sinless life look like? This abstraction is made concrete in Jesus. And today Jesus teaches us with his words what his life always demonstrates: what it means to be blessed. We ought to be surprised by what we hear. The qualifications for ascending the mountain of the LORD and standing in his holy place include: mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and enduring persecution. These are not skills that would commonly be listed on a resume.
But they are nevertheless true. When we embrace these attitudes of blessedness we begin to experience the perks even now. Jesus comforts us and gives us a homeland in his Church. He satisfies us with righteousness for which we long in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He satisfies our hunger and thirst for righteousness with his own flesh and blood in the Eucharist. As we embrace peace we come to realize the great love the Father pours out on us.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
But there is always more. There is the suffering which we don't fully appreciate here and now. We must still rejoice and be glad for the reward that will be great in heaven. There is still the progress we have yet to make. The clean of heart see God. And that must mean our hearts still need much cleaning. Alas, yes, they do. But what awaits us is unimaginable.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
"We are the people that longs to see your face." Everyone longs for this site on some level, however much they may bury it. Since we know this is what we want, what should we do? "Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure." But this purity is not something we can create on our own. Our mourning doesn't beget joy just in and of itself. Our hunger for justice becomes mere frustration if left to the purely natural. Without grace peacemakers are called naive and foolish rather than the children of God.
Let us look to those who have this purity already. Let us look to those who trust in this grace absolutely. What is their secret?
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
They overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony (cf. Rev. 12:11). They overcome by trusting in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus and by the fruit it bears in their own lives. Instead of trusting in their own strength they cry out:
"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb."
They don't just say it. They put the full force of their will into proclaiming this truth. They cry it out. We are meant to see ourselves with them in this vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. We are meant to join in their endless joyful worship:
“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
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