Apocalypse: Triumph of Love

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“The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on, for the glory of God gave it light, and in its lamp was the Lamb.” We have again to them another reading from the great book of Revelation, the Apocalypse. And so, I’ve been doing this little three-part series organized on faith, hope and love. The Book of Revelation is a vision of faith that permits us to see beyond the limits of our human knowledge, to begin to penetrate into the mysteries of God’s plan in human history, and it’s also a message of hope. It shows in a symbolic way; it shows these great conflicts that the world and the Church is living now. We spoke of this last week, but above all, it gives us hope. And then the final part, with the Book of Revelation, has a book of great surprises, the surprise of the triumph of love, the triumph of divine love. And so, we have to condense things. I’ll just focus here on two points in this last draft of the series, because there’s a lot within the book of Revelation that is very harsh and terrifying. It’s again, it’s speaking in a symbolic way, but it’s giving us a realistic sense of the thief that is attacking us, and how vicious and deceptive that evil is when it shows these intense battles, these monstrous beasts and these hordes of evil spirits unleashed upon our world, great dragon, that terrible monster. And so, it’s surprising, and I’ve often said this, but I think it’s not the image that people have. When you think of the Apocalypse, what are all those images that come to your mind, all these terrifying images? What dominates the Apocalypse is a lamb. When you hear the word Apocalyptic, do you think of a lamb? Is that what comes to your mind when you hear someone say the Apocalypse?  But that dominates the Book of Revelation, and it’s a lamb. It’s not even a ram.  A ram is a little bit more impressive, but it’s a lamb, a gentle weak, an animal which is so gentle, weak or vulnerable, and an animal of sacrifice. For that, for the Jewish people especially, thought of it as an animal of sacrifice. And so, this has two surprises here. One, the great surprise that God would make Himself the Lamb. And there’s that passage towards the beginning where there’s an announcement of the Lion of Judah, for what appears is not a lion, but a lamb. God Himself becomes the Lamb, the Lamb of God, who becomes the sacrificial victim, the sacrifice on the cross. John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” and the sacrifice which becomes an act of love and mercy. So that one extreme surprise that God becomes the Lamb. And the other surprise is that the lamb is victorious, the Lamb is triumphant.  And so that’s such a revolution than our way of thinking and understanding that the Lamb, which seems very weak, is actually extremely strong. It’s actually all might extreme strength of the Lamb. And I said that we don’t think of this, no, there’s no superhero that’s lamb man. And we don’t think of the lamb as, you know, that’s because think, you know, think of the other super, I mean, even a spider man. I mean, that’s kind of weird, right?  A spider man. But so, you know that they’ve sought for all sorts of, all sorts of superhero motifs. And you know, we’ve run through a whole bunch of superheroes. I don’t know how many there are, but there’s a bunch of them, right? There’s all sorts of different, none of them are lamb man. And yet, that’s what the Lord says. The great super magnum superhero is the lamb. The superhero of superheroes is the Lamb. And this reveals the mystery of the power of sacrificial love. Well, I’ll just give you a few examples, because there’s so many. In the book of Revelation, at one point it says, “Only the Lamb can open the seals.” They’re waiting for someone to be able to open the seals, which are the designs of God, and no one can do it. No one is capable, until the Lamb comes. The Lamb is the only one capable of opening these designs of God. And another point, John, the Apocalypse, talks about those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. So, this is revealing not just that there’s a Lamb, but also that it’s possible to follow Him, that there are people who choose and actually follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and there’s a special glory in heaven for those who follow the path of the Lamb. At another point, it speaks of those who have conquered the evil one. And how did they conquer him? It says, “by the blood of the Lamb,” the very blood that we will be receiving in Holy Communion is what conquers the evil one, the blood of the sacrifice. At another point, it talks about 10 kings who have given their power to the beast, and it says, “they will make war on the Lamb.” So, how’s that – 10 kings fighting a Lamb? What kind of battle is that? 10 kings fighting a Lamb. And it says, “The Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings.” The lamb will conquer them. And then it goes on to say, “and those with the Lamb are called and chosen and faithful.” So again, there’s the Lamb and those who are with the Lamb. And then, and this is the last passage. I’ll read through this. It’s talking about, it says, “Then the kings of the earth and the great men.” So I guess maybe, “all the kings of the earth and the great men and the general and the rich and the strong, and everyone slave and free, hid in the cave and among the rocks of the mountain, calling into the mountains and the rocks, ‘fall on us and hide us’.” So, hide us from what? What is so terrible that they want to be, they want the rocks to fall on them, because they’d rather be crushed by these rocks than have to face this. I mean, can you imagine what could be so terrible that you’d rather that the rock fall on you? Then it says, “hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne,” that’s God the Father. “and from the wrath of the Lamb,” the wrath of the Lamb. I mean, that almost sounds like a joke, the wrath of the Lamb. That from the wrath of the Lamb, and because the lamb is the one who’s offered the sacrifice of mercy, that the lamb is also bringing justice, justice and mercy. “For the great day of the wrath has come, and who can stand before it?” So the book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, puts us in this paradox between the realistic sense of the evil and the conflicts in this world, that above all the Lamb, who Is triumphant by His sacrifice, by His sacrificial love. So that’s the first point I wanted to look at. And then after there’s the final battle, the great final battle, which we don’t have time to go into here; but then John sees new heavens and a new earth, and He sees coming down from heaven the New Jerusalem. He says, “and I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Remember that? Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband? “And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself will be with them’.” So what I think we would have expected is all the saints to be assumed into heaven. But what this shows is God and the heavenly Jerusalem coming down to earth to dwell in this new earth, this kingdom where God is the almighty King, where His light and His love fills this kingdom. And what would it be like to be in a kingdom where everyone adores and respects and loves God, and that is this kingdom. But here’s the second point that I wanted to focus on. So, at the beginning, the very beginning of Scripture shows us the fall in Eden, when Adam and Eve are listening to satan, turn away, turn away from God, into sin, and that sin separates them from God. And then finally, Jesus comes as the Lamb, who by His blood, by His sacrifice, can reconcile us to God. And then the very end of Scripture, the book of Revelation, shows us this definitive union of man with God in paradise. Peter Kreeft says, “When our  divine lover, comes to fetch His bride to take Her home, the divine lover comes to fetch His bride and take Her home.” Again, when you think of the book of Revelation, do you think of a wedding feast? And someone says, the apocalypse? Do you think of a wedding feast? I mean, some wedding feasts go bad, right? But they’re not apocalyptic. They’re not that bad. But this is a wedding feast that it’s not apocalyptic as it went so bad, it’s apocalyptic because it’s so glorious. John says, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many wattles and like the sound of mighty thunderbolts, mighty peal of thunder, saying hallelujah for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.” You know the Hallelujah that we sing before every gospel, it comes from this. “Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and exalt and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. The marriage of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready.” And so the bride, the mystical bride of Christ is the Church. Jesus is the divine bridegroom who offers Himself for His bride. And this is the coming of the marriage of the Lamb with His bride the Church. “It was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” And so, this is the holiness of the Church, which will be splendid, radiant, without any stain at this point. And we know now the Church is often disfigured by the stain of us, it’s members, and so make it very hard for people to believe. But at this point, there will be no more stain. The Church will be radiant in holiness, and “the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Because this is the great and ultimate celebration, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the greatest celebration ever, the ultimate celebration. So, who was invited to that celebration, because it’d be very sad not to be invited to that celebration. The Gospel shows us when it’s speaking of the celebration, the King offering the marriage for His Lamb and the chosen. A lot of people refuse. They say, no, they don’t go. They don’t respond. But this “blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And we are invited, but each one of us has to make a choice, whether we will go or not, but we’re invited to this greatest feast. But the mysterious thing is that we’re not just invited as a guest. Every soul is invited as the bride. That is, it’s the union of God with His Church, which is the Church together, and which is also every soul which responds. It begins, first of all, with our Blessed Mother and every one of us, if we respond to His call. Saint John of the cross, for instance, the great mystic, Saint John of the cross, speaks often, and that’s kind of the central image that he uses – is the soul’s like powerful union with the Lord. So that’s the great mystery of our life, the union of our person, of our heart and soul with the Lord Himself. That’s the greatest war. That’s the greatest call that a human person could have. There’s no greater destiny than the destiny to be united to God, to end in divine life. And so, when Jesus talks at the Last Supper about that your joy may be complete, that My joy may be anew and your joy may be complete. His joy is His union with the Father, and He wants to share that union with us. So, a lot of people go into marriages with a lot of well, very well, with a lot of hopes that are often, we know, often disappointed, sometimes painfully disappointed. But this is the wedding with no disappointment, which is completely beyond even anything that we could have hoped for. But who is this for? It says, “to the thirsty, I will give the water without price from the fountain of the water of old.” This is the great water of joy and love that the Lord wants to pour out to those who are thirsty. And so, in conclusion, “blessed are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Remember, that’s where all of Scripture is leading. There’s a lot of things in Scripture. Some of them are very sad, some of them are very hard. Some of them are very mysterious. But when you think of the Bible, the important thing is, where does it all end up? Where all the Bible ends up is in the wedding feast of the Lamb. That’s our destiny, but each one of us has to respond. Now we often think of prophecy as something bad. I mean something warning us of bad things to come. But there is that that’s part of prophecy. But above all, this great prophetic book and all the prophecy of Scripture is leading us to something that is unimaginably joyful. And so, it’s important to realize where we’re going. This is what God has called us to. And so even if there’s a lot in the Apocalypse that we don’t understand, still there’s a lot of graces that we can receive just by reading it. And so, with our Blessed Mother, let us open ourselves to this great prophetic book. And at the very end, John hears that Spirit, the Holy Spirit and the bride, the Church. The Spirit and the bride say, what did they say? What did the Spirit and the Bride say? “Come.” It’s not a long, complicated thing. It’s just “Come.”. That’s the thirst of the bride calling out to the bridegroom, “Come.” And let him who hears, say, say, what? It’s not complicated. It’s not a long difficult to memorize prayer. “Let him who hears say ‘Come’, let him who hears say, ‘Come’.” Can you memorize that – Come? One word, Come. So is it that say let at the end of this long book with there’s a lot of prayers, and like the Psalms, there’s some long prayers in the Psalm, long, beautiful prayers, but at the end, it’s like there’s so much thirst that all it’s crying out is “Come.” “And let him who is thirsty, come. Let him who desires, take the water of life without price. He who testifies to these things says, surely, I am coming soon.” I don’t know if there’s a faster on that soon, if there’s a footnote on that soon, what is that soon? Lord? What is your soon? Because it says, I am coming soon. And then St John says, “Amen, come, Lord.” So, you get the message. Come. So, Jesus comes in the Holy Eucharist, the Eucharist that we’ll be celebrating today, He will come. He comes in different ways in this world. He comes like through things like apparitions, like the apparition of Divine Mercy, the messages of Divine Mercy. He comes to special graces that he can give us in different ways. He will come at the end of the faithful’s life on earth. And then there will be His final coming to lead His bridegroom to the marriage. “Blessed are you who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb” Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus, Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23