Father Herman Kramer, in his book entitled “The Book of Destiny”, which was the fruit of his 30 years of research in an attempt to explain the Apocalypse, takes the position that the numbers given in this chapter of the Apocalypse are actual numbers, not symbolic numbers.

The bottom line is that his position is that a total of 144,000 “of the children of Israel” will be saved - an exact number of 12,000 people from each of the 12 tribes mentioned.  It is interesting to note how the tribe of Dan is not mentioned because anti-Christ is supposed to spring forth from the tribe of Dan and thus the tribe of Dan is reprobate and therefore not mentioned.  It is replaced by the tribe of Benjamin.

Then the inspired writer, Saint John the Apostle, continues and tells all of us:

“After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands...”

This great multitude are the Gentiles, those who are not of the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Notice the contrast in the text.  The “children of Israel” can be numbered to the extent of only 144,000 people - today 144,000 people could be the population of a small town.  Whereas the Gentiles can not be numbered because they are so numerous.

Let this, therefore, be a source of hope for each and everyone of us.  In other words, each of us has a much greater opportunity for being numbered among this “great multitude” as it is called.

But WHY do you suppose this is?

The first reason is obvious.  Because the Old Law of the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was only “a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things” (Hebrews 10:1) as God the Holy Ghost teaches us through the pen of Saint Paul.

Only when the promised Messias of the Old Blood Covenant of the Old Law, the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Divine Logos, the Word of God, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Who is the “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Apocalypse 19:16), perfectly instituted the New Blood Covenant of the New Law of the New and Eternal Testament, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Mysteries which flow from it, namely, the Seven Sacraments, were people able to take advantage of the New Law of Grace which was but prefigured by the Old Law of Justice.

In other words, it is much easier for Catholics to sanctify themselves by these means than it was for the Jews to sanctify themselves before the time of Christ.

Another reason for the paucity of saved Jews is because, since the time of Jesus Christ, the Messias in the flesh of the Old Testament Prophets and their prophecies, the Jews have stubbornly continued to refuse to accept Him as the one and only real Messias.

On the contrary, because they are haters of the Truth, God condemns them to believe lies, as God the Holy Ghost testifies through the pen of the Apostle:

"...because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying" (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Therefore, those Jews who are thus cursed by God, have deprived, and continue to deprive, themselves of the means of personal sanctification so that only by extraordinary virtue can they even begin to save themselves - but which even extraordinary virtue is useless because in rejecting Christ they have rejected the only sure and certain means of eternal salvation and thus condemn themselves to Hell for all eternity - even the most pious of them, since the days of Christ, until they are converted and suffer martyrdom for the Catholic Faith under the bloody persecution of anti-Christ.

But the Gentiles should not gloat over this situation of the unfortunate Jews.  Rather, the Gentiles must take pause here, lest they, themselves, are found to be among those who:

"shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared" (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

because, without any exceptions, God the Holy Ghost warns all Catholics, no matter who they are, again through the pen of the Apostle, to:

"...stand fast; and hold the Traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle" (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

Sad to say, it is an historical fact that since Synod Vatican 2 [Thursday, October 11, 1962 - Wednesday, December 8, 1965] Catholics have been taught to be anti-Tradition, to blindly accept all of the changes in the Church, under the pain of "blind obedience", on "blind faith".

But this is contrary to what God the Holy Ghost not only teaches all of us, but against which He also warns us, lest we, too:

"shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared"! (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

It is beyond even the shadow of a doubt, according to God the Holy Ghost, that one infallible way to depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, is by refusing to hold the Traditions - the authentic Apostolic Tradition which the Apostles received from Jesus Christ and which the Apostles very carefully passed down to their Episcopal Successors, and those Bishops to their Episcopal Successors, etc., down through almost 200 centuries!

This is why those who embrace the "New" this and the "New" that in the Church have fallen away from "the Traditions", from the authentic Apostolic Tradition, as for example the Holy Liturgical Catholic Rites for the Mass and the Seven Sacraments, because, as the Angelic Doctor correctly explains:

“Since, therefore, the sanctification of man is in the power of God Who sanctifies, it is not for man to decide what things should be used for his sanctification, but this should be determined by Divine institution” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., [b. 1225 A.D. in Rocca Secca, Naples, Italy - d. Wednesday, March 7, 1274 A.D., in Fossa Nuova, Italy], Doctor of the Church, Summa Theologica, Part III, Question 60, Article 5, Body).

Jesus Christ, of Whom the Scripture testifies that "He hath done all things well" (Mark 7:37), is the Eternal High Priest
(Hebrews 3:1) Who "is the head of the body, the church, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He may hold the Primacy:  Because in Him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell" (Colossians 1:18-19), perfectly instituted both the ontological essence and the metaphysical essence of the Mass and each of the Seven Sacraments.

What does all of this mean in plain, Anglo-Saxon English?

First, it means Jesus Christ is in charge of His Church of the New and Eternal Covenant which He Himself instituted.

Second, because in all things He holds the Primacy, in the process of instituting the Rite for the Mass and the Seven Sacrament, because He instituted them perfectly, since "He hath done all things well" (Mark 7:37), He never gave anyone any power, authority, or jurisdiction to change - in any way, for any reason(s), the ontological essences and the metaphysical essences of the Mass and the Seven Sacraments.

Whis is an "ontological essence"?  It is simply that which makes a thing to be what it is without which it is not that thing.  For example, there are certain things that make a cloud a cloud, a mountain a mountain, a star a star, a human being a human being, etc.  IF anyone of the things required to make something that specific thing, then it is no longer that specific thing, but something else.  So if a cloud is missing even one thing that makes a cloud a cloud, it is not a cloud - what it is, who knows?  But for certain it is not a cloud.

The same with the Mass - there are certain things that make the Mass the Mass.  But if even one of these things is missing, then it is not a Mass but something else, even if it is called a "Mass", even if it looks like a "Mass", by those who changed its ontological essence.

What is a "metaphysical essence"?  The metaphysical essence is what the ontological essence does and is likewise appplied to the Mass.

This means that those Church authorities who have rejected the Catholic Traditional Liturgical Rites for the Mass and the Seven Sacraments have not only changed the ontological and metaphysical essences of the Mass and Sacraments, but also have apparently forgotten that the Angelic Doctor gives us a brief history lesson where he writes:

“We find it stated in De Consecr., dist. 1, that 'James, the brother of the Lord according to the flesh [i.e. the Apostle, Saint James the Just, Patriarch of Jerusalem], and Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, edited the Rite of celebrating the Mass': and from their authority it is manifest that whatever words are employed in this matter, are chosen becomingly” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., [b. 1225 A.D. in Rocca Secca, Naples, Italy - d. Wednesday, March 7, 1274 A.D., in Fossa Nuova, Italy], Doctor of the Church, Summa Theologica, Part III, Question 83, Article 4).

So the Holy Apostle and Martyr for the Catholic Faith, Saint James the Just, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Brother of the Holy Apostle and Martyr, Saint Jude Thaddeus, and Bishop Basil of Caesarea, who lived a short distance from Jerusalem, "edited", i.e. published hand-printed Sacramentaries (Missals) for use by the many newly Ordained Priests and Consecrated Bishops, especially through the missionary labors of Saint Paul, which were all exact or uniform in terms of each word of the text and also of each word of what today would be called rubrics (instructions).  Some refer to this as the "Missal of 60 A.D."

Although there does not seem to be any evidence that Christ Himself wrote the First Missal, which in the earlier centuries was called a Sacramentary or a Codex, there IS a very real possibility that Christ Himself dictated the words and the rubrics of the First Missal to the Apostles for offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  The language would have been Aramaic.  IF this did in fact happen, it was probably sometime during the 40 Days before the Ascension of Christ into Heaven.  Later, it seems that this Rite of Mass was translated into Greek in what some call "The Missal of 60 A.D." which pre-dates the so-called “Clementine Liturgy” by about 30 to 40 years!

What is known for certain is that Christ gave the Apostles the necessary instructions as to HOW to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Evidence for this is found implicitly in the Gospels and more explicitly with Saint Jerome [b. in Stridon, Dalmatia in c. 340 A.D. - d. in Bethlehem in 420 A.D.], a Doctor of the Catholic Church.

One researcher writes in part:

“How far Christ may at that time (Acts 1:3) have instructed His Apostles in the details of the Eucharistic Service we do not know, but there is no improbability that instructions may have been given them by Our Lord on this point.  Such, seemingly, was the universal belief of the Early Church.  Even at a much later period St. Jerome still refers to Christ having instructed His Apostles that ‘daily in the Sacrifice of His Body the Faithful may dare to say, “Our Father, etc.”’ (St. Jerome, Adv. Pelag. iii, 15).”

“It all shows the persistence of these traditions.  IT CERTAINLY WOULD MOST PERFECTLY ACCOUNT FOR THE ALMOST INCREDIBLE UNIFORMITY OF TYPE IN THE PRIMITIVE RITE, unless indeed the Apostles themselves should have come to an agreement under the direction of St. Peter.  Else each Apostle might have initiated his own Rite, embodying the essentials prescribed by Christ at the Last Supper” (Joseph Husslein, S.J., The Mass of the Apostles, pp. 320-321, emphasis added).  [N.B.  Fr. Husslein was obviously not aware of "The Missal of 60 A.D."]

Another source writes in part:

“Book VIII of the ‘Apostolic Constitutions’ is especially interesting on account of the influence it exercised in the East, and even in the West, and at Rome. This is a fresh argument in favor of that liturgical unity in the first centuries;  Hippolytus, Serapion, the ‘Apostolic Constitutions,’ and even Clement of Rome and the ‘Didache’ all exploit a theme which presents numerous analogies” (Right Reverend Dom Fernand Cabrol, The Mass of the Western Rites, pp. 19-20).

The bottom line is today, especially, every Catholic must obey the command of God the Holy Ghost through the pen of Saint Paul:

"...stand fast; and hold the Traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle" (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

Some of the Catholic classical authors of the Spiritual Life explain how the Holy Saints of Heaven, whose feast day we celebrate today, were very ordinary people, just like you and me, but who did ordinary things extraordinarily well.

So how were very ordinary people able to do ordinary things extraordinarily well in order to sanctify themselves to the point at which they actually became Saints of Heaven?

These ordinary people had the same opportunities that you and I have today.  They took advantage of what some of the Catholic classical authors of the Spiritual Life call “the Means of Spiritual Perfection”.

What are these “Means of Spiritual Perfection” to which these Catholic classical authors of the Spiritual Life, most of whom are, themselves, Saints, refer?

Here is a list of the basic “Means of Spiritual Perfection” which can help an ordinary Catholic to become a Saint:

In general, ordinary Catholics became Saints of Heaven by actually living the lifestyle of a Saint.  In other words, Saints did more than just the absolute bare minimum requirements for Catholics.  Every day, by the Grace of God, they actually LIVED a life of virtue, of prayer, of mortification, and of love of God.

But when they failed in doing these things, and because of the weakness of human nature, they did fail, and some of them most probably fell many, many times every week, they did not become discouraged and give up.

No.  They prayed for the Graces of patience and perseverance and the Gift of Fortitude to help them to get back up and to pick up their cross and to carry it again.

They made a firm resolution to never, never give up trying to live the lifestyle of a Saint, not by futilely trying to imitate the heroic acts of the Saints of the past, but rather by being faithful to their own chosen state in life - not wishing to be doing something else, but rather to do what they were required to do according to their state in life and to do it extraordinarily well, no matter how much their human nature revolted or otherwise did not like to do what they were doing or wished to be doing something else.

With but some rare exceptions with only a very few of them, God gave them the insight to realize that such wishes were vain, were Spiritually harmful and, in some cases, were actual temptations of the Devil.

How many Mothers, when getting up at all times of the night to either feed or change the diaper of their newborn, may have thought:  "If only I was a Nun, I would not have to take care of this crying baby."?

How many Parents, when having to deal with a disrespectful, disobedient, rebellious teenager, have thought if only I had become a Nun (for Mothers), a Priest (for Fathers), they would not have had this heavy cross of a terrible teenager?

I remember when I was in the Novitiate how we were warned to always stay balanced, never to go to excess, whether in our personal prayers, devotions, or whatever.  Also, to never desire and to never think that we could do more for God if we were doing something different or were somewhere else.

For example, the classical temptations of the Devil for some people are:

1) For the Laity, for both men and women to wish and desire to enter a Religious Order and to spend their time in meditation or contemplation and in praying before our Eucharistic Lord present in the Tabernacle.  For some men, to enter a Seminary because in so doing, after they were Ordained Priests, they could save more souls and become a great Saint in the process.

2)  For secular or dioceseon Priests that they could save more souls and become a great Saint if they were either missionaries in foreign countries or Religious Priests in monasteries living a quiet life of prayer, study, meditation, etc.

3)  For missionaries or Religious Priests that they could save more souls and become a great Saint if they were doing parish work.

Put another way, the Saints were more than just so-called “Sunday Catholics” who practice their faith primarily only on Sundays while the rest of the week they behave like pagans, living a life-style of materialistic, worldly, fleshly, pagans who “worship”, so to speak, the false gods of the seven capital or deadly sins of pride, avarice, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth.

In particular, ordinary Catholics became Saints of Heaven by the actual living of the lifestyle of a Saint by:

1.  The observance of the Ten Commandments of God out of their love for God, which are really the first 3 Commandments, and their love for their neighbor which are really the last 7 Commandments.
2. The observance of the Precepts of the Catholic Church.
3. Uniting and conforming their will to the Most Holy Will of God.
4. Assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as frequently as possible.
5. Receiving the Sacraments, i.e. Penance and the Holy Eucharist, as frequently as possible.
6. Meditation or Contemplation.
7. Practicing self-control, self-discipline and self-denial and avoiding the near occasions of sin.
8. Being faithful in small things and practicing acts of supererogation which are tiny things one is not required to do but which are done out of love for God.
9. Establishing order and regularity in their life.
10. Forming a habit of prayer.
11. Spiritual Reading.
12. Having recourse to solitude when possible to listen to the inspirations of God the Holy Ghost.
13.  Implement one of the Catholic Traditional Schools of Spirituality.
14.   Practice the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.

Resolutions

For your Resolutions, every day of your life pray for the Graces you need to imitate the ordinary things the Saints did extraordinarily well and you, too, can become not only a Saint, but even a great Saint!  Aim high!  There is nothing “wrong”, so to speak, with setting your goal very high, and, by using the Means of Spiritual Perfection, to get a high place in Heaven by your faithful and courageous endurance of the burdens of your state in life, having that peace of soul in the serene knowledge that you are doing God’s Holy Will and how you desire nothing else except to love God more and more every day.

As a final resolution, in the Holy Name of Jesus, and in an exercise of Catholic Charity, please contribute to the support of the Church - in this case - the Shrine of Saint Jude.  Please help us to save Souls!  Thank you for your thoughtfulness and Charity! Remember, God is never outdone in generosity!!!

Think how happy you will be when, in the next life, God shows you all of the Souls you helped to save by helping our Apostolates, including this Sermon web site, because "he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).

“And in doing good, let us not fail.  For in due time we shall reap, not failing.  Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Galatians  6:9-10).

“After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands:   And they cried with a loud voice, saying:  Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.” (EPISTLE, Apocalypse 7:9).

V   In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

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