Wednesday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 18, 2020

Revelation 4:1-11

I, John, had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpetlike voice that had spoken to me before, saying, “Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards.” At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian. Around the throne was a halo as brilliant as an emerald. Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Seven flaming torches burned in front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. In front of the throne was something that resembled a sea of glass like crystal.  In the center and around the throne, there were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back. The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a man, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever. They throw down their crowns before the throne, exclaiming: “Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.”

After his arrest and exile to the tiny island of Patmos off the coast of Asia Minor, John the Apostle received a series of visions concerning the history of the Church which he described in a book that came to be called, “The Book of the Apocalypse”, or “The Book of Revelation”.  Due in part to the imagery and the violent events it depicts, this book has received less study than it deserves.  Properly understood, it is a book of hope and encouragement for Christians throughout history, with the destruction of evil and a vivid detailing of the New Jerusalem in the final chapters.

A primary cause making this a difficult book to read is that it is not meant to depict events in a consecutive manner, like a history book.  It is a book composed of seven visions which sometimes overlap in content and which on occasion retell events that were previously related.  Also, the Lord Jesus appears numerous times in the book, but in different forms.  And this is true of the Church.  Besides this, the central conflict appears as between the Lamb and the Beast, a travesty of the Lamb, but also between two women, one crowned with twelve stars, and another labeled “the whore of Babylon”.  To gain the most from reading this book, the competent guide of the Church is necessary, and we have this in the form of commentaries by such men as St. Augustine, the Venerable Bede and St. Albert the Great, whose insights inform the works of the best modern Catholic commentators.

The second vision of the book begins with chapter four, in the verses that make up today’s first reading, and runs through the first verse of chapter eight.  This vision reveals the history of the Church from the Birth of Christ until the final judgment.  Featured in this vision are the so-called seven horsemen of the apocalypse.  The vision begins with the image of heaven and of the Holy Trinity.  In the first verses, in this reading, we see heaven and the Father — the Father being described only indirectly.  A “trumpetlike” voice commands St. John to “come up here”.  This is the voice of an Angel who will guide St. John at various points in the visions.  “A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian.”  We note that while something approaching a description of the Father is given, it is an evasion of a description as well, for the Father cannot be described.  In fact, the One sitting on the throne is never called “the Father”.  His identity is made clear by the interactions between him and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who will be seen with him, and through the praise of the Church.  The Father is eternal brilliance, recalling for us the words of St. Paul: “The Blessed and only Mighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords: who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light: whom no man has seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy 6, 15-16).

“Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads.”  This is one of the images of the Church, under the aspect of its leadership, for the number signifies the twelve Prophets and the twelve Apostles.  These are dressed magnificently and appear to possess great power.  This helps us to see how great God is, since they are shown as far inferior to him.

“Seven flaming torches burned in front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.”  The Holy Spirit appears standing in equality of majesty with the Father.  He appears in this sevenfold manner to emphasize his divinity, for the number seven is the number of heaven — the number of the sun, the moon, and the five visible planets.  His appearance as “flaming torches” reminds us of his appearance over the heads of the Apostles at Pentecost.  Two Divine Persons are thus shown.  The Lamb, the Son of God, will appear shortly, but not in this reading.

“In front of the throne was something that resembled a sea of glass like crystal.”  The sky over the earth is the “floor” of heaven, and in ancient times was thought to consist of crystal.  The Venerable Bede considered that this “sea of glass” signified the waters of baptism.  This is fitting for we see the Holy Spirit as though presiding over it, and the Church seated on it.  The Church, which we see as the twenty-four elders, now simultaneously appears under another aspect: “four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back.”  The “eyes” signify the vigilance of the Church, watching the world and its pitfalls, and also itself, lest it stumble due to the weakness of its members.  In addition, the Church set in heaven in this way shows how the bliss of the faithful consists in the vision of God, who is everywhere present.  These four living creatures are distinct even while in unity, for “the first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a man, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight.”  The Fathers saw these as symbols of the Gospels, although differing in which creature stood for which Gospel.  Bede, after listing the opinions, simply says, “The living creatures, just described as the Gospels, also signify the whole Church.  The Church’s fortitude is shown in the lion; as sacrificial offering in the calf; as humble in the man; and as elevated in the flying eagle.”  The total number of their wings is twenty-four, the same number as that of the elders and so making their identity clear.  The wings also show the Church’s destiny in heaven with God.

“Day and night they do not stop exclaiming: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.’ ”  This is the eternal hymn of the blessed in heaven, which we imitate at Mass and in our other prayers on earth as we wait for the day when we will be summoned to join the Saints. 

The twenty-four elders worship in unison with the living creatures: “They throw down their crowns before the throne, exclaiming: ‘Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.’ ”  We are given to understand that these hymns alternate, one after the other, in the manner of a verse and antiphon.  The crowns worn by the elders signify that the Church of the Saints will reign with Christ and judge the nations with him (cf. 1 Corinthians 6, 2).  The elders cast them down at the feet of the Father in recognition of their unworthiness of any share in God’s glory, caused by the overwhelming vision of God in himself.

This vision of heaven and of God and the Church makes for reassuring reading and as the subject for fruitful meditation during these treacherous times.  It is the vision of St. Stephen as he was being stoned to death, and the vision of martyrs, hermits, confessors, virgins, and religious down through the ages — a vision accompanying them throughout their lives and present to them in their deaths.  May this vision be ours as well as we make our way on our pilgrimage to Christ.