Stand In His Holy Place?

From today’s reading…

Who shall go up to the mountain of Yahweh? Who shall take a stand in his holy place? The clean of hands and pure of heart, whose heart is not set on vanities, who does not swear an oath in order to deceive.” Psalm 24:3-4

I’ve heard sin described as driving nails into a board and Confession as pulling the nails out. However, the holes remain in the board, which means the damage has already been done to our souls and those we hurt, so how do we repair that damage to become pure?

Earthly penance is not enough.

“But Wes, Jesus died for our sins so we’re good to go. He filled in all the holes. He patched over all the gaps. It’s time to partay, par-tay-ay!”

Yes and no.

Jesus did come to bring salvation to the world, but we are not passive observers. We’re not sitting in the stands eating popcorn yelling “Yay, Jesus!”

While He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we are called to join Him on the Way and to live the Truth in order to have Life.

And when we fall short we just make amends, we must be made pure, which is where we get the concept of purgatory or expiatory purification.

It’s not something to be feared. On the contrary, we should give thanks that God gives us the means by which we can join Him despite the many times we fail to…

Stay the course. Keep the faith. Endure.

Now go sell something.