Hope and Hell
Nov. 25: Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
After a week of scary (apocalyptic) imagery, Revelation turns to some positive views today. And in the Gospel, Jesus tells us how to get there.
Reading 1
Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5
I, John, looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. They were singing what seemed to be a new hymn before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn this hymn except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the first fruits of the human race for God and the Lamb. On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.
John’s revelation takes a more positive turn from here, showing that it’s not all fire and brimstone. People who follow God’s commands and love one another will have joy in the end.
A note on the symbolic number 144,000. Some groups take that literally, that only a dozen, dozen thousand people will get into heaven. But even writing that out sounds silly. It clearly means “a lot.” Which is actually a sign of hope!
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
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.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
God created the world for us to live in, which means what we do here matters. We have no control over the circumstances we’re born into, nor the larger society around us. But our reaction to those things is what counts, as we’ll see in today’s Gospel.
Alleluia
Mt 24:42a, 44
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
We never know how things will work out, in the near term or the long term.
Gospel
Lk 21:1-4
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."
The ancient Israelites had many rules about what they were supposed to give to God.1 That’s what the wealthy were doing. But those laws are just a starting point—God wants what’s in our hearts more.
The rich men were trading their money for the admiration of others. The poor widow gave all she had, regardless of what anyone else thought about it. Did either of them follow the tithing rules? No one knows! Jesus doesn’t point it out, because the letter of the law isn’t what matters—the spirit of the law is.