As we approach the celebration of the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, I’ve been thinking about what Scripture has to say about heaven. We’ll never be able to quite grasp the mystery of eternal happiness during this earthly life, but the Bible does offer a simple image that provides some insight: music.

The book of Revelation, which describes the heavenly liturgy, includes many references to the songs of heaven. Of the many references to music in the last book of the Bible, this one intrigues me most:

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. (Revelation 14:1-3).

It is generally understood among Catholics that the 144,000 mentioned in this passage are representative of all who have been saved by Jesus. The number 144,000 (12 x 12 x 1000) combines the number twelve, which represents perfection and authority, and the number 1000, which evokes a great multitude. Each of us should hope with God’s grace to be among the great multitude singing this “new song” of heaven.

But what is this “new song” that the saints will sing in halls of heaven? It’s the hymn of praise that will be sung for all of eternity to God who has created us, redeemed us, and invited us to eternal life. As we fully behold the goodness of God, we will feel a love for him that is far greater than words alone can express, and our joy will burst forth in a hymn of worship. Even here on earth, music allows us both to express and experience movements of the heart in a way that surpasses human vocabulary. The jubilation of heaven, far greater than what we experience here on earth, will only be able to be expressed with a “new song,” a song that we cannot fully hear during this mortal life.

Both Scripture and the writings of the saints, however, make it clear that we must begin to learn this new song even here and now. St. Augustine says that loving like Jesus brings us into this song: “When we love as he loved us we become new men, heirs of the new covenant and singers of the new song” (From the Office of Readings for Thursday in Week 4 of Easter). At every single Mass, we are invited to sing with the angels and saints when we are asked to proclaim the “Sanctus,” the “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In the Psalms, we are commanded at least five times to sing “a new song” (Psalm 33:3, Psalm 96:1, Psalm 98:1, Psalm 144:9, Psalm 149:1). Psalm 40:3 says similarly, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Commenting on this theme of the Psalms, St. Augustine wrote:

This new song does not belong to the old man. Only the new man learns it: the man restored from his fallen condition through the grace of God, and now sharing in the new covenant, that is, the kingdom of heaven. To it all our love now aspires and sings a new song. Let us sing a new song not with our lips but with our lives…

But how is this done? You must first understand that words cannot express the things that are sung by the heart. Take the case of people singing while harvesting in the fields or in the vineyards or when any other strenuous work is in progress. Although they begin by giving expression to their happiness in sung words, yet shortly there is a change. As if so happy that words can no longer express what they feel, they discard the restricting syllables. They burst out into a simple sound of joy, of jubilation. Such a cry of joy is a sound signifying that the heart is bringing to birth what it cannot utter in words.

Now, who is more worthy of such a cry of jubilation than God himself, whom all words fail to describe? If words will not serve, and yet you must not remain silent, what else can you do but cry out for joy? Your heart must rejoice beyond words, soaring into an immensity of gladness, unrestrained by syllabic bonds. Sing to him with songs of joy (From the Office of Readings for the Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr).

Although we will not learn to sing this song of heaven until we are “in that number” when the saints go marching in, as the Gospel Hymn says, we must even now begin to learn to praise God with our hearts and with our lives. One of my absolute favorite saints, Elizabeth of the Trinity, offers this profound reflection about becoming “a praise of glory” – i.e., someone who has learned to glorify God – in the depths of our hearts:

A praise of glory is a soul of silence that remains like a lyre under the mysterious touch of the Holy Spirit so that He may draw from it divine harmonies…

Finally, a praise of glory is one who is always giving thanks. Each of her acts, her movements, her thoughts, her aspirations, at the same time that they are rooting her more deeply in love, are like and echo of the eternal Sanctus.

In the Heaven of glory the blessed have no rest “day or night, saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty…. They fall down and worship Him who lives forever and ever…”

In the heaven of her soul, the praise of glory has already begun the work of eternity. Her song is uninterrupted, for she is under the action of the Holy Spirit who effects everything in her; and although she is not always aware of it, for the weakness of nature does not allow her to be established with God without distractions, she always sings, she always adores, for she has, so to speak, wholly passed into praise and love in her passion for the glory of her God. In the heaven of our soul let us be praises of glory of the Holy Trinity, praises of love of our Immaculate Mother. One day the veil will fall, we will be introduced into the eternal courts, and there we will sing in the bosom of infinite Love.

As we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, let us recall that Jesus, who has gone before us into the courts of heaven, invites us already to join him in the heavenly chorus of praise. May the Lord “tune our hearts” to sing his praise, as one of my favorite hymns – “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”– says.