Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.

As we begin this final week of ordinary time, we continue to be invited to reflect over the end of times through the book of Revelation. Today we read about the elect, "the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes."

I never really noticed the last verse of this reading. "On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished." My first reaction to a statement like that is always "Well crap," but the Holy Spirit nudged me. I know the truth is that God is very merciful and that we cannot be perfect this side of heaven. There is hope for us sinners to enjoy heaven, the beatific vision, forever. So what does this mean, that the elect are totally unblemished and that no deceit has been found on their lips? 

I think first of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. Ultimately, every good thing that we think, say, or do comes from the grace He gives us through the cross. Faith is not ours. It is a gift given to us that we choose to accept or reject. By baptism, we accept the gift of "unblemish-ing." We are born again of water and spirit and Jesus makes us new. Through the Sacrament of Baptism and the profession of faith on our lips, we become alive in Christ.

So what about "on their lips no deceit has been found?" I asked the Holy Spirit what that could mean, and what came to my mind is this. God knows that we can never be perfect until death. We can certainly get close though (read about the incorruptibles!) and we  need to try. But grace is real. We have been made new in Baptism and Jesus gives us the grace to pursue perfection. "On their lips no deceit has been found." When I read that, I read "what they professed with their lips, they lived with their lives." When it comes to the holy ones, they professed a faith in and an intense need for Jesus. They knew and know that they rely on Him for everything, and then they live like it! That doesn't mean that they never sinned. There is only one created human that never sinned. There are a handful of created humans that never  mortally sinned (St. Therese being one). There are many that were hardened sinners that lived lives of repentence, prayer, and fasting. And that's what we're called to do.

Let no deceit be found on our lips. Profess the faith of our Church in Jesus Christ, and then seek to live it out. If you believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, then pursue a relationship with Him. If you believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son our Lord, then honor Him and His sacrifice by striving for a life of virtue. If you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, then seek to be attentive to Him in every aspect of your life.

I don't think God expects you to do this perfectly today, but I do think God expects you to give it all you've got. That's why He offers us the poor widow as an example in the Gospel. While the sum of what she gives might be less than the rich, she has offered her whole self, broken and imperfect as it might be.

I hope I'm like the widow. I hope that I recognize my brokeness and immense need. And then I hope I give anyway; of my money but also of my very self. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."