Friday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 22, 2024

Revelation 10, 8-11

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me. Then the voice spoke to me and said: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. He said to me, “Take and swallow it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.” I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

This Reading is taken from the third of the seven visions which make up The Book of Revelation.  This third vision tells of the preaching of the Holy Church.

“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  The Venerable Bede sees this “angel” as the Son of God who has come down to earth.  He sets one foot on the sea and one on the dry land, signifying that the Gospel will be preached through the whole world.  He cries out that, “Time shall be no more”, indicating that we are in the last age of the world before he comes to judge the living and the dead.  He also has in his hand “a small scroll”.  Bede comments that this scroll, long unopened, contains the graces of God saved up for this age.  It also contains the contents of the Gospel, which heralds these graces.  The Apostle John is told by the voice from heaven to go to Christ to receive this scroll, which he is told to eat.  “Eating” here signifies that God’s message and not simply words spoken by an indifferent messenger but a living word which the messenger has (literally) incorporated in himself and which has changed him.  

“It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”  This brings to mind Ezekiel 3, 1–4, in which an angel speaks to the Prophet: “ ‘Son of man, eat all that you shall receive: eat this book, and go speak to the children of Israel.’  And I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that book.  And he said to me: “Son of man, your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled with this book, which I give you.’  And I did eat it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.  And he said to me: ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and you shall speak my words to them.’ ”. And then, by way of further explanation: “And he said to me: ‘Son of man, receive this in your heart, and hear with your ears, all the words that I speak to you.’ ” (Ezekiel 3, 10).  It is delightful to hear God’s message of salvation, and at the same time persecution will afflict those who preach it in turn.  We must keep in mind that the Gospel is not merely information but is alive and transforms the one who receives it: “For the word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow: and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ( Hebrews 4, 12).

“You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”  On a strictly literal level, this command is meant for John, who will return to Asia Minor after his exile and continue to preach the Gospel there.  But it is also a commandment for the Holy Church.  The Lord gives the Church the message of salvation and the Church preaches through her members to “many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”  (The Greek word translated here as “about” means “to” or “on”, not “about”).  The angel says “You must prophesy”.  In the early Church the verbs “prophesy” and “preach” were used practically interchangeably.

“Taste and see that the Lord is sweet!” (Psalm 34, 8).  His words are sweet in our heart.  Let us devour them as did Jeremiah the Prophet: “When I found your words, I did devour them, and your word was to me a joy and gladness of my heart” (Jeremiah 15, 16).