December 20/Fourth Tuesday of Advent
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, who does not lift up his soul to what is empty.
~ Ps 24.3-4
People still tend to dress for church in my small and historic parish. Men don coats and ties, women wear “church dresses” (even the occasional hat), children’s faces are washed and their hair neatly combed or beribboned. Most everyone enters the sanctuary sartorially polished and prepared; we recognize and welcome our out-of-town visitors because they are often the ones wearing jeans. While the tradition of dressing for church certainly contributes to an atmosphere of reverence, it does not make us worthy. The psalmist today asks an important question: “Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place?” What does it mean, in other words, to be a person of faith, a seeker who longs to find God’s presence? The psalmist lays out his criteria clearly and definitively. We must have clean hands – treating others with honesty and compassion. We must have pure hearts that steer us towards the Lord’s holy place. And we must offer up our souls — in Hebrew, nefesh, a word that encompasses our whole being, our “ensoulled body and embodied soul,” as a divinity school professor of mine described it — to the truth of the one God, abjuring false and empty idols. What qualifies us to ascend the mountain of God is the cut of our souls, not of our jackets. For as we know from the account of the anointing of David, “the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” By all means, let us wash our hands (and those grubby little toddler fists) as we go to the house of the Lord. But before all else, let us keep sight of how we treat God and our neighbor.
Lord of all mercy, Create in me clean hands, a pure heart, and a faithful soul that seeks you every day. Amen.
To hear Coro Santa Maria Maddalena sing “Quis ascendit in montem Domini” (“Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?”) click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpBjJgDTKk4
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122022.cfm
