Today’s first reading,
Revelation 15: 1-4, shares with us more of John’s vision. He sees “something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.
On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast
and its image… They were holding God’s harps, and they sang the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb [Jesus, the Lamb of God].
‘Great and wonderful
are your works,
Lord, God almighty.
Just and true are your
ways,
O king of the nations…
….You alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts
have been revealed.’”
You and I, as Christians,
participate in the works of God. The prayer that opens today’s liturgy asks
that
the wills of the faithful be stirred up so that we will strive more eagerly to
bring God’s “divine work to fruitful completion.” What a grace that has been earned for us by
Jesus’ shedding of His blood and surrendering His will to the will of the
Father, which is that we are victorious over the beast! Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit so that we
have everything we need to reverse the tendency within us to rebel against God,
to choose our own will over God’s will, to make a name for ourselves as Adam
and Eve attempted to do by eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil in
the middle of Paradise, what the people attempted to do in building the tower
of Babel, what the Israelites attempted to do in worshipping the pagan gods of
the countries that they had conquered on the way to the Promised Land. We face the same temptations of those who
have gone before us. We also are armed, however, with the same graces with
which others have been armed and through which they “won the victory over the beast and its image.” If we cooperate with the graces we are given
today, we will “bring [God’s] divine
work to fruitful completion.” Yes, we
will win “the victory over the beast and its image” because God’s work in us is
“great and wonderful.” I believe that!
What about you?
