Thursday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 27, 2020

Revelation 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9a

And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and the earth was enlightened with his glory. And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.”  And a mighty angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With such violence as this, shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown down and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and of musicians and of them that play on the pipe and on the trumpet shall no more be heard at all in you: and no craftsman of any art whatsoever shall be found any more at all in you: and the sound of the mill shall be heard no more at all in you: And the light of the lamp shall shine no more at all in you: and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all in you. For your merchants were the great men of the earth: for all nations have been deceived by your enchantments.  [And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth.]  After these things, I heard as it were the voice of much people in heaven, saying: Alleluia. Salvation and glory and power is to our God. For true and just are his judgments, who has judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication and has revenged the blood of his servants, at her hands. And again they said: Alleluia. And her smoke ascends for ever and ever. And he said to me: Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The lectionary presents this reading from the Book of Revelation as the first reading for today’s Mass.  it is a bit chopped up as it gives us a few lines of the beginning of Chapter 18, then a few lines from the end of that chapter, and then a few lines from the beginning of Chapter 19.  Significantly as well as strangely, the final verse of Chapter 18 has been left out.  The reading plus this excised verse (indicated here as enclosed within brackets) is offered here in the Douay Rheims translation, modified by replacing the use of “thee, thy, thou” with the modern equivalents and the old “-st” endings to the verbs.  It is advisable for understanding this reading to read through the relatively short Chapters 18 and 19 in their entirety.

The sixth vision of the Book of Revelation is comprised of Chapters 18-20, and is concerned with the judgment of the wicked city, Babylon, which is the earthly city.  The seventh vision, from which we will have readings on Friday and Saturday of this week, is concerned with the events which will happen at the very end of time, including the final confrontation with evil, and the reward of the just. The short chapters that make up that vision, 21-22, should also be read together.

“I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and the earth was enlightened with his glory.”  This vision describes in a different way events of which we have already learned in previous visions, particularly the last.  It is important, then, to understand that this new vision is distinct from but in some ways related to the previous ones.  Now, this angel is the Lord Jesus Christ.  “And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.’ ”  It is clear from the text of the vision that this “Babylon” is not the actual city (which by St. John’s time had been in ruins and uninhabited for centuries) but rather the power of the devil on earth (the “earthly city”, filled with its citizens, the allies of the evil one).  The power of the devil appears in Revelation primarily as the dragon in Chapter 12, fighting viciously against the Church and her faithful, and as “Babylon” or as the “great harlot”.  The devil, who went into hiding after the battle in Chapter 12, and thereafter fought against God and his Church through his agents the beasts, comes out again openly at the very end of time.  The Lord here announces the end of the devil’s power to harm the righteous.  “And a mighty angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea.”  This angel is also the Lord Jesus, who takes up a millstone and casts in the sea.  St. Albert the Great comments that this “millstone” is the multitude of the wicked, called a “millstone” because of how hardened the wicked are in their sinfulness.  The salty “sea” is the bitterness of hell.  “With such violence as this, shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown down and shall be found no more at all.”  These are the words of the angel, that is, the Lord.  He is saying that Babylon shall fall very quickly, very violently, and very completely.  It shall be found “no more at all” — its time to do penance is over.  

“And the voice of harpers and of musicians and of them that play on the pipe and on the trumpet shall no more be heard at all in you.”  That is, there shall be no consolation for the damned in hell, but only the sounds of moaning and groaning.  “No craftsman of any art whatsoever shall be found any more at all in you.”  The damned will be utterly unable to help themselves.  “The sound of the mill shall be heard no more at all in you.”  Nothing delightful to the taste will remain to the damned, nor to the sight: “And the light of the lamp shall shine no more at all in you”; nor to the ear: “The voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all in you.”  “For your merchants were the great men of the earth: for all nations have been deceived by your enchantments.”  These merchants traded their souls and spiritual goods for worldly things.  Here, the Lord is speaking to the damned in a way that paraphrases what he says to the condemned in Matthew 25, 42-43: You traded your opportunities for doing good for your own convenience and the pursuit of passing goods.  “Great men”: “Great” in the eyes of the worldly.  Notice That the Lord says, “your” great men, that is, not mine.  “For all nations, etc.”  Albert points out that this means “some people from all nations” rather than “all people from every nation”.

“And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth.”  This is the verse excised from the reading.  Perhaps this was done because it was thought to be too graphic for some folks.   Whatever the excuse, the cutting out of passages like this cannot be justified.  The Venerable Bede has this astute comment on this verse: “Which city killed not only the prophets, and all the saints, but also the apostles?  The city which Cain founded by the blood of his brother, and which he called by the name of his son, Enoch, that is, of all his posterity (cf. Genesis 4, 17).  Seven generations of Cain are described.  In the building of his city is shed all the just blood from the blood of Abel even to the blood of Zachariah (cf. Matthew 23, 35).  That is, of both layman and priest.”

“After these things, I heard as it were the voice of much people in heaven.”  This is the sound of the angels and saints of God, rejoicing together in heaven over the Lord’s victory over evil.  “Alleluia. Salvation and glory and power is to our God.”  Our word “alleluia” is the Latinized “hallelujah”, a Hebrew word that means something like, “Praise to the Lord”.  The words of the holy ones tell us that “salvation, glory, and power” belong absolutely to God and to no one else, and are his to share.  “For true and just are his judgments, who has judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication.”  The end of the “great harlot” — the devil’s power under another aspect — is described in Chapter 17.  The Book of Revelation can be understood as the conflict of two women: the Church, as signified by the woman with the crown of stars in Chapter 12, and Satan’s power, as signified by the “harlot” in Chapter 17.  These are shown again as cities: “Babylon”, as in Chapter 18, and the New Jerusalem, as in Chapters 20-21.  “And has revenged the blood of his servants, at her hands.”  “Revenged” in the sense of having carried out justice.  Technically, “revenge” means getting even on one’s own over a personal injury.  The sense here is that God has exercised justice, as is his right, on the wicked agents of the devil who persecuted and killed those who belonged to Christ.

“Alleluia. And her smoke ascends for ever and ever.”  The “smoke” indicating the continuous and eternal punishment of the wicked in hell.  It “ascends” in that the elect are aware of God’s justice: they know the evil of the world are suffering punishment for what they have done. 

“Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  This is the message of the Gospels and of the New Testament in general.  This marriage supper is spoken of by the Lord in a parables such as in Matthew 22, 2-24.  We recall that, as the Lord said at the end of this parable, as a sort of moral: “Many are called but few are chosen.”  That is to say, all people are called, but few show up.  These few, the righteous, are then “chosen”, that is, judged as worthy, to enter the spacious palace of heaven, there to enjoy the most marvelous delicacies.  They come because they have heard of the king, know him to be bounteous, and they are hungry.  Their hunger increases as they make their way to the palace, for they do not stop to eat a meal of their own making.  Those who refused to come believe themselves to be self-sufficient and “autonomous”, and not dependent on anyone.  Rather than admit that they are hungry because they in fact cannot provide for themselves, they reject the invitation to eat with the king.

We are told beforehand throughout Revelation that the perseverance of the followers of Christ will be tried, but for it to grow, and that our hunger for his marriage supper may likewise grow.  The book tells us repeatedly that those who hold on tight will be saved, admitted to the heavenly courts, and that the wicked will suffer in faraway hell.  Let us enlarge our appetite for the good things of God’s table by meditating about them, and our hunger for God will be our salvation.