A crowd no one could count

We have seen many crowds of tremendous size in this election season.

Some in the crowd are just drawn by celebrity, but some in the crowd think that that person perfectly represents their hopes and beliefs.

They are wrong.

It does not matter whether this person is progressive or conservative, experienced or fresh: this person does not and cannot represent all of what we believe and hope for.

To be sure, we must make prudential judgments regarding the best people to elect, a judgment in which our hopes and beliefs must be involved, but only one man perfectly represents and will bring about all our hopes and beliefs (and indeed the hopes of all the world): our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is around Him that the crowd gathers in today’s first reading (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14):


After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes
and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory,
wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes,
and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“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.”

Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.