Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 497

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show his servants what must happen soon.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
who gives witness to the word of God
and to the testimony of Jesus Christ by reporting what he saw.

As 2020 comes to an end – and the sooner the better! – we begin a series of scripture readings from the last book of the New Testament. It is called “Revelation” or “The Book of Revelation;” and we should understand clearly the word is singular – Revelation – and not plural. I don’t know why but I’ve had to correct myself often on that account.

So let’s stop right there and consider the meaning of revelation in our Christian tradition. In common parlance it concerns something revealed. News journalists reveal their discoveries; a TV or movie story might be resolved when a secret is revealed. I have heard yoga pants were very revealing, but I never looked into that.

In our Christian tradition revelation concerns an act of God which cannot be predicted by the study of nature. It is not exactly unnatural, but it is unexpected. Seeds grow into plants; that’s natural. A virgin giving birth is not natural; it’s a revelatory act of God.

The Book of Genesis describes a history of sin from its second through eleventh chapters; and then God speaks to Abraham. That is a moment of revelation, unexpected and undeserved. Someone might ask, “Why Abraham? Why from the land of Ur? And why at that time?” Those and similar questions are largely irrelevant because it happened. It’s a fact of history. Deal with it!

But, as we live with the revelation, making the necessary adjustments, we appreciate how perfectly natural it is! In retrospect, we assure ourselves and tell others, “It makes perfect sense!” If the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and his revelation as the Son of God, were totally unexpected at the time, the Evangelists, Saint Paul, and early Christian writers went to great lengths to show us that this happened in God's plan and to fulfil the word of God.

God had promised it since the beginning and the clues were there, if we’d only noticed them. But we could not have noticed them until the Lord opened our eyes to see, as he did for the two disciples on the way to Emmaus.

I have been reading Saint John Henry (Cardinal) Newman’s seminal work, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine with great satisfaction. Realizing that God’s revelation must be authoritative not only at the time of its appearance but for all time, he says, there must be a divine authority that will guide its interpretation through future ages. Without that authority the revelation will be misinterpreted, misconstrued, and finally lost. It will have no relevance to succeeding generations, and the mighty works of God will be in vain.

That authority belongs generally to those who receive the revelation; and particularly, to the one who speaks for them. It should be as infallible as the initial revelation. It cannot be partially infallible. (That’s an oxymoron.) But their infallibility is obviously limited to the revelation and its import; it has no weight in other fields of knowledge.

As we turn to Revelation, that most difficult book in the extraordinarily difficult compilation of writings we call the Bible, we must ask the Lord to give us the Spirit of Emmaus. We ask for reassurance, encouragement, instruction, and guidance in these difficult times. John, the Seer of Patmos, could not have envisioned our world; he knew only his own experience in those early days of the Christian era. But his Revelation to the churches of Asia Minor, as interpretted by the infallible magisterium of the Church, still inspires us with confidence in Jesus Christ.