Thursday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 19, 2020

Revelation 5:1-10

I, John, saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it. I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it. One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.” Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God sent out into the whole world. He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones. They sang a new hymn: “Worthy are you to receive the scroll and break open its seals, for you were slain and with your Blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth.”

In the reading from the Book of Revelation for today’s Mass, we read the continuation of the description of the second vision.  In yesterday’s reading, St. John told of seeing the heavenly court, including the One who sat on the throne — the Father — and the Holy Spirit, appearing as seven torches which stood before the Father.  Now we are prepared to see the Son.

“I, John, saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.” The Fathers of the Church considered this scroll to be the divine revelation.  “It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.”  That is, the outside of the rolled scroll was the Old Testament and the inside was the New Testament.  This recognition by the Fathers was important because some early heretics denied that the books of the Hebrew Bible had anything to do with the Lord Jesus, as the Jews had persecuted and killed him.  Some of these even rejected the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John for quoting the prophets and the law, while excising passages of Luke’s Gospel in which he did this.  Seeing both Testaments in the same scroll reminds us of how they work together to give us God’s word.  The “seven seals” tell us of their divine inspiration by the Holy Spirit.  “Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ ”  Unless “one who is worthy” opens the scroll and breaks its seals, God’s revelation will remain a mystery, that is, no one will be able to understand it.  “But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it.”  No one came forward as worthy to do this, not even the most powerful angel.  “I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it.”  This is the terrible predicament of fallen man: unless someone comes to save him, he is lost; yet he does not know how to ask for help and he cannot help himself.  St. John weeps, seeing man’s misery.

“One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.’ ”  Where have we heard of this “lion” before? From the prophesy of the dying Jacob in Genesis 49, 9-10: “Judah is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, you are gone up: resting, you have couched as a lion, and as a lioness.  Who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah, nor his staff from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.”  These verses are used at Mass in early Advent.  His “triumph” is over Death.  “Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain.”  This is the Lord Jesus.  The Lion of Judah appears here as a Lamb.  He is a “lion” in his divinity, and a “lamb” in his humanity.  As a “lamb”, he offers himself as sacrifice, and as “lion” he is victorious.  As in the Lord’s own description of heavenly realities, his appearance here seems paradoxical to us.  He is alive, but is as “slain”.  But in this way we know that this is a vision of the Risen Christ, bearing his mortal wounds, which he told the doubting Thomas to touch.  “He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God sent out into the whole world.”  The seven “horns” tell us of his heavenly power, equal to that of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The seven “eyes” on him show us how the Son and the Spirit together reveal the mysteries of the Father, which the Son tells us about in John 14, 26: “But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.”

“He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.”  The Greek verb here translated as “he received” can also be translated as “he took”, which is how some of the Fathers, including the Venerable Bede, understood it.  That is, the Son took the scroll, meaning that “he took the order of his Incarnation” from the right hand of the Father, as Bede says.  “When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.”  At this sign of the Incarnation, the Fathers declare the whole Church under the aspects of the elders and the four living creatures falls down in abject worship of the Salvation that has come.  “Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.”  Bede comments that the “harps” of the elders are the offering of their sufferings for Christ, inasmuch as a harp consists of strings stretched tightly across a wooden frame, in the fashion of a tortured human.  Incidentally, this is the origin of the image of angels playing harps.  We see in the offering of the prayers of the “holy ones” the intercession of the saints.  

“They sang a new hymn.” A new hymn for the new thing that God done, entering the human world and winning salvation for us: “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21, 5).  “Worthy are you to receive the scroll and break open its seals, for you were slain and with your Blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth.”  Notice the order of events here: You are worthy [present tense] to become man and to preach the Gospel because you were slain [past tense].  This is the divine perspective.  For us, the Son was worthy to be made man because he chose to suffer and die for us.  We have also seen how the angel asked, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”  From our human perspective, the seals would have to be broken and then the scroll could be opened.  These paradoxes remind us that in the Book of Revelation we are in a different world, and that God sees time and space very differently from our accustomed ways.  “With your Blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation.”  One of the most important lessons of this book for the early Christians was that both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians would be saved.  At the time of its writing, some Gentiles believed the Jews, by their rejection of Christ, had forfeited salvation, while some Jewish Christians thought that Gentiles must become Jewish through circumcision in order to become Christians.  We see this played out through St. Paul’s letters and the Acts of the Apostles.  “You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth.”  The Greek word translated here as “kingdom” can also be translated as “kingship”, that is, the office of king, and so making them kings and priests.  The Christian is, through baptism, a king in the King, and a priest in the Priest.  That is, as the Lord’s Kingship consists of service, so does that of the Christians.  And as the Lord’s Priesthood consists of the offering of the self to God, so does ours.

We see in this reading, then, the whole court of heaven assembled: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and with them the Holy Church and the angels.  We see the dignity of the Lamb who has saved us, and our dignity in his desire to save us.