Your Names Are Written in Heaven
There are mornings when success seems wonderfully easy to measure.
The job worked. The problem was solved. Someone listened. The plan succeeded. The thing we had worried over yesterday has, somehow, actually come right.
The seventy-two disciples return to Jesus with exactly this sort of morning. They have astonishing results to report. Even the devils have obeyed them.
Christ does not tell them that their success is unimportant. He tells them that they have mistaken the size of it.
There is something greater than what they have accomplished.
Their names are written in heaven.
That is worth carrying into prayer this morning.
Opening Verse
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he made us and we belong to him.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said:
These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he made us and we belong to him.
Psalmody
Psalm 91 (92)
Antiphon: In the morning we proclaim thy mercy, O Lord, and thy truth through the night.
It is good to give praise to the Lord:
and to sing to thy name, O most High.
To show forth thy mercy in the morning,
and thy truth in the night:
Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery:
with a canticle upon the harp.
For thou hast given me, O Lord, a delight in thy doings:
and in the works of thy hands I shall rejoice.
O Lord, how great are thy works!
thy thoughts are exceeding deep.
The senseless man shall not know:
nor will the fool understand these things.
When the wicked shall spring up as grass:
and all the workers of iniquity shall appear:
That they may perish for ever and ever:
but thou, O Lord, art most high for evermore.
For behold thy enemies, O Lord, for behold thy enemies shall perish:
and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn:
and my old age in plentiful mercy.
My eye also hath looked down upon my enemies:
and my ear shall hear of the downfall of the malignant that rise up against me.
The just shall flourish like the palm tree:
he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.
They that are planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.
They shall still increase in a fruitful old age:
and shall be well treated,
That they may show that the Lord our God is righteous,
and there is no iniquity in him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: In the morning we proclaim thy mercy, O Lord, and thy truth through the night.
Canticle — Deuteronomy 32:1–12
Antiphon: Proclaim the greatness of our God.
Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak,
let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
Let my doctrine gather as the rain,
let my speech distil as the dew,
As a shower upon the herb,
and as drops upon the grass.
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord:
give ye magnificence to our God.
The works of God are perfect,
and all his ways are judgments:
God is faithful and without any iniquity,
he is just and right.
They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in their filth:
they are a wicked and perverse generation.
Is this the return thou makest to the Lord,
O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee,
and made thee, and created thee?
Remember the days of old,
think upon every generation:
Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee:
thy elders and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided the nations:
when he separated the sons of Adam,
He appointed the bounds of people
according to the number of the children of Israel.
But the Lord’s portion is his people:
Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land,
in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness:
He led him about, and taught him:
and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
As the eagle enticing her young to fly,
and hovering over them,
He spread his wings, and hath taken him
and carried him on his shoulders.
The Lord alone was his leader:
and there was no strange god with him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Proclaim the greatness of our God.
Psalm 8
Antiphon: How wonderful is thy name, O Lord, in all the earth.
O Lord our Lord,
how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!
For thy magnificence is elevated
above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies,
that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.
For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers:
the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.
What is man that thou art mindful of him?
or the son of man that thou visitest him?
Thou hast made him a little less than the angels,
thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:
And hast set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast subjected all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields.
The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea,
that pass through the paths of the sea.
O Lord our Lord,
how admirable is thy name in all the earth!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: How wonderful is thy name, O Lord, in all the earth.
Short Reading
Romans 12:14–16
Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep:
Being of one mind one towards another: not high-minded; but condescending to the humble.
Short Responsory
It is good to praise thee, O Lord.
It is good to praise thee, O Lord.
To proclaim thy mercy in the morning,
and to praise thee, O Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
It is good to praise thee, O Lord.
Gospel of the Day
Luke 10:17–24
And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying: Lord, the devils also are subject to us in thy name.
And he said to them: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.
Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall hurt you.
But yet rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.
In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal him.
And turning to his disciples, he said: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see.
For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them.
Benedictus
Antiphon: Lord, guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Lord, guide our feet into the way of peace.
Intercessions
Christ rejoices over the children of his Father. Let us come to him with confidence and pray:
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For thy Church throughout the world: keep her faithful to the Gospel, humble in her service, and joyful in the salvation of souls.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For bishops, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, and all who labor to make Christ known: keep them from measuring their vocation merely by visible success.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For our work today: grant that we may do ordinary things faithfully, receiving success with gratitude and disappointment without despair.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For our families and homes: make us quick to rejoice with one another, patient with weakness, generous in forgiveness, and grateful for the people thou hast entrusted to us.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For those who suffer, those who are lonely, those whose work has failed, and those who believe themselves forgotten: let them know that no life loved by thee is insignificant.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
For those who have died: bring them into the company of the saints, where every earthly sorrow is gathered into everlasting joy.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
And for ourselves: free us from the need to prove our worth by achievement. Let our deepest gladness be that we belong to thee.
Lord, teach us the joy that cannot be taken away.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Father of heaven and earth,
from whom every good thing comes,
teach us to receive this day not as something we have earned,
but as a gift entrusted to us.
Keep us humble in success, faithful in disappointment,
compassionate toward those who suffer,
and joyful in the knowledge that we are known and loved by thee.
May we seek first the kingdom of thy Son
and find our deepest happiness not in what we accomplish,
but in belonging to him.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The Paradox of the Day
The greatest reason for rejoicing is not that we have done something for God, but that God has already written our names in heaven.
Chesterton for the Morning
“Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter IX, “Authority and the Adventurer”
A Chestertonian Meditation
There is a peculiar pleasure in crossing something off a list.
The list may contain things of no conceivable importance to civilization: change the furnace filter, answer the email, buy dog food, repair the dripping faucet. Nevertheless, drawing a line through an item gives a small sensation of conquest. Something has been subdued. Chaos has retreated by perhaps a quarter of an inch.
Human beings like evidence that we have accomplished something.
The seventy-two disciples come back with considerably more impressive evidence.
They have not fixed a faucet. They have cast out demons.
One can forgive them for being pleased.
“Lord, the devils also are subject to us in thy name.”
There is something almost boyish about the report. It sounds like men returning from an expedition who cannot wait to tell the captain what happened.
And Christ does not deny it.
Indeed, he confirms that something enormous has happened: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.”
Then comes the astonishing correction.
Do not rejoice in this.
Or rather, do not make this the foundation of your joy.
“Rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.”
This is a very strange way of congratulating successful men.
We would normally congratulate them precisely upon the success. The project worked. The business grew. The audience increased. The child graduated. The team won. The machine ran. The diagnosis was good. The article was read. The prayer was answered in exactly the way we had hoped.
These are good things. Christianity does not require us to pretend that good news is bad news.
But Christ knows how quickly a good thing can become a dangerous measuring instrument.
If I rejoice principally because the demons obey me today, what happens tomorrow when they do not?
If my happiness rests upon the project succeeding, what happens when the project fails?
If my peace depends upon being useful, admired, productive, healthy, clever, needed, prosperous, or even visibly effective in doing good—then every one of those blessings has quietly acquired the power to destroy my peace.
Success is an excellent servant.
It is a dreadful savior.
This is why the Saturday psalm begins somewhere much safer.
“It is good to give praise to the Lord.”
Not: it is good to have had a productive week.
Not: it is good to have won.
Not even: it is good to have been right.
It is good to praise the Lord.
The week may contain victories and disasters, brilliant ideas and foolish mistakes, answered prayers and questions that remain stubbornly unanswered. Yet Saturday morning arrives, the sun comes up over houses belonging to successful people and unsuccessful people alike, and the Church says the same thing to all of them:
Praise God.
There is tremendous freedom in this.
Psalm 8 looks upward at the moon and stars and asks perhaps the most astonishing question a human being can ask:
“What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
We generally reverse the question.
We ask what we have done that God ought to notice.
Psalm 8 is amazed that God notices us at all.
The Christian begins not with achievement but astonishment.
I exist.
God knows me.
God has called me.
God desires me.
My name is known in a place I have never seen.
Suddenly the whole business of human importance is turned upside down.
Chesterton understood this inversion because he understood joy. His Christianity was not chiefly an argument that the universe was pleasant. Plenty of things in the universe are manifestly unpleasant.
His discovery was stranger.
The universe was a gift.
And a gift need not be perfect from our point of view before gratitude becomes reasonable. A child receiving a wooden train does not first commission an engineering analysis of the wheel bearings. He sees that someone gave it to him.
That changes everything.
Chesterton eventually called joy “the gigantic secret of the Christian.”
Perhaps it is secret because we continually look for it in public places.
We look at the scoreboard.
Christ points toward a book we cannot see.
We count accomplishments.
Christ speaks of names.
We report what we have done.
Christ reminds us who we are.
And perhaps this is why he immediately rejoices in the Holy Ghost and thanks the Father for revealing these things to “little ones.”
Children understand gifts better than accountants do.
A small child does not generally inspect a birthday present and ask whether possessing it represents an adequate return on investment. He tears off the paper.
He is delighted because someone remembered him.
That may be very close to the joy Christ offers today.
You have been remembered.
Before this morning’s work begins, before you solve anything, repair anything, earn anything, persuade anyone, help anyone, or accomplish anything worthy of crossing off a list, there is already a reason for joy.
Your name is known.
This does not make work meaningless.
It makes work possible without making work an idol.
We can attempt difficult things precisely because failure cannot erase our names.
We can serve without keeping score.
We can rejoice when another person succeeds because his success does not diminish our own place in God’s affection.
We can “weep with them that weep” because suffering need not be hurried away merely to preserve our illusion that everything is going well.
And we can grow old without imagining that declining productivity means declining worth.
That last thought belongs beautifully to this Saturday’s psalm:
“They shall still increase in a fruitful old age.”
The world has a rather ruthless habit of measuring people by output.
God plants them in his house.
A machine may become obsolete.
A man does not.
A résumé may become shorter in relevance as the years pass. A person’s name does not therefore fade from heaven.
The oldest man sitting quietly in the back pew may appear to accomplish very little by the measurements of the marketplace. He may, in fact, be doing the tremendous work of praising God.
And the child beside him may be doing the same.
The executive, engineer, mother, mechanic, priest, student, farmer, widow, teacher, invalid, and unemployed man all arrive before God with radically unequal résumés and exactly the same astonishing invitation:
Rejoice.
Not because everything went right.
Not because you were impressive.
Not because evil obeyed you.
Rejoice because heaven knows your name.
There will still be lists today.
There will still be jobs worth doing well. There will be things to repair, people to help, meals to prepare, errands to run, problems to solve, prayers to say, and perhaps even victories worth celebrating.
Cross things off the list.
Enjoy it.
But somewhere above the little list on the kitchen counter, the workbench, or the glowing screen is another book entirely.
We do not hold the pen.
We cannot see the page.
Christ simply tells us that there is something written there worth more than all our victories.
Our names.
And perhaps the proper response to such news is not complicated at all.
It is the first line of Saturday’s psalm:
It is good to give praise to the Lord.
May we enter this day with the freedom of people who do not have to earn their names.
Chesterton Radio