Memorial of Saint Andrew Dũng-Lac, priest and martyr, and his companions, martyrs

Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.
On the sea of glass were standing those
who had won the victory over the beast…

Catholic scripture scholars, as opposed to fundamentalist scholars, insist the essential message of the Book of Revelation is comfort. It begins with Isaiah 40: Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

Despite the violence and wrath that shimmer on every page of the book, the news is good for God’s people. You have nothing to fear. Those who should dread are those who will never hear the message, who refuse to hear the Gospel.

In our American tradition our African-American co-religious, especially, offer us this good news. During the days of slavery, when white ministers misread the Epistles of Saint Paul to reinforce “the peculiar institution,” slave preachers heard and announced the story of Exodus and Moses and the long sojourn in the land of Egypt. They knew the day must come when they would be delivered by the Hand of God into the Promised Land. As Union armies invaded the south, liberation moved ahead of them. Black slaves fled their homes, many to enlist in the federal army to form their own fighting units, even as their shocked former masters grieved over their “ingratitude, after all we did for them!”

At the time of the writing of Revelation, Christians found themselves despised by Jews and scorned by gentiles. They suffered sporadic persecution because they would not offer the perfunctory sacrifice in the temples of Roman gods. Romans were pretty generous toward traditional religions. They didn’t mind if their subject nations continued to honor their ancient gods, so long as they recognized the supremacy of Rome and its all-conquering pantheon. But they were suspicious of new religions. New doctrines could only mean political trouble. That is why Saint Luke was at such pains to show the traditional links between Judaism and Christianity, and Saint Paul advised his disciples to obey the civil laws.

But Christians suffered nonetheless and wondered how long must this ostracism and mistreatment continue. Revelation (12:14), recalling the Book of Daniel (7:25), assured them it would be brief -- a year, two years, and a half-year. That is one half of the usual seven years.

In our time, in the United States, suffering no persecution for our Christian beliefs but rather enjoying an unfamiliar hegemony, we must practice restraint, hospitality and tolerance toward people of other religions, especially Native Americans, Jews and Muslims. Remembering how we were treated – as the Israelites remembered their suffering in Egypt – we must not be found guilty of discrimination, unfairness or rudeness toward other faiths. You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 22:21)