Monday,
11/26/12
Our
first reading comes from a vision penned by St. John, Christ’s Beloved
Disciple. His vision of heaven had one hundred and forty-four thousand saved-souls
assembled before the Lamb of God. They are praising God by playing their harps
in perfect unison. I had a friend who loved quoting John Milton’s version of
that scene from his Paradise Lost. Milton described heaven as a place where
“The Cherubic hosts in thousand choirs, touch their immortal harps of golden
wires.”
Burma
Shave’s variation on that was less sublime. Its first sign said, AT EACH
CROSSING. The second sign said, LOOK EACH WAY. The third sign said, A HARP
SOUNDS PRETTY. The last sign said, BUT ITS HARD TO PLAY.
St.
John actually experienced a vision of heaven, but what he saw and what he felt
went far beyond the capacity of human speech to depict. We can be sure that he
was far from satisfied with the scene he created with his words. Still, we
should reward his efforts by believing that what he experienced went beyond
being breath-taking.
I
just Googled Mozart, and I was rewarded with a clip in which an eighteen-member
Viennese ensemble of violins, cellos, and bases played his “A Little Night
Music.” If I were to attempt
describing what I heard to a person who is deaf from birth I would have a task
similar to what John attempted in todays’ first reading.
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